Boeing Awarded Contract for Next-Generation Harpoon Block III Missile
The Boeing Company has been awarded a $73.7 million U.S. Navy contract to design and develop the Harpoon Block III missile, a next-generation weapon system that will enhance naval surface warfare capabilities.
The system design and development (SDD) contract will result in a kit upgrade program for existing Navy weapons that will return 800 enhanced surface- and air-launch Harpoon missiles and 50 ship-launch systems to the service’s inventory.
Equipped with a new data-link system, Harpoon Block III will offer warfighters more control after the weapon is released, resulting in improved accuracy for littoral and open-ocean warfare. The Block III upgrade also positions the missile for future spiral developments, including extended range and vertical launch capabilities.
Harpoon Block III adds in-flight target updates, positive terminal control and connectivity with future network architectures to a proven missile that already provides autonomous, all-weather, over-the-horizon capability.
The surface-launch version of Harpoon Block III will achieve initial operational capability (IOC) in early 2011 with IOC of the air-launch version scheduled for later that year. The next major program milestones will be the Systems Requirements and Preliminary Design Reviews, both scheduled for 2008.
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