UK Ministry of Defence(MOD) has agreed to purchase additional Paveway IV bombs worth £25m from Raytheon UK. These weapons are to be carried...
These weapons are to be carried by Tornados jets in Afghanistan and will also provide a key capability to be carried by the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 aircrafts.
The contract announced will sustain around 450 jobs at Raytheon UK's plants. It will secure 300 highly skilled defence sector jobs in Glenrothes, Scotland, and 150 in Harlow, Essex.
It will also sustain a number of jobs at Raytheon'ssubcontractors - Portsmouth Aviation Ltd, Exelis inBrighton, Chemring in Ardeer and Thales in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Paveway IV proved highly effective during the 2011 air campaign over Libya. Its global positioning system technology gives the capability to conduct 24-hour precision attacks against a wide range of targets.
Aircrew also have the ability to reprogramme the weapon during a mission, offering capability to attack a wider range of targets.
In total, the MOD has this year awarded contracts worth more than £100m to Raytheon for orders of around 1,600 Paveway IV bombs.
