Raytheon, Navy Demo Rolling Airframe Missile; Rick Nelson Comments

Raytheon Co. and the U.S. Navy have upgraded and tested a missile designed to defend against hostile cruise missiles, airborne threats and surface objects.

Four Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2 missiles destroyed two targets during developmental tests from the Navy’s Self-Defense Test Ship, Raytheon said Thursday.

Raytheon installed dual-mode, passive radio frequency and infrared guidance into the RAM Block 2 and aim for the missile to concurrently intercept multiple threats.

Rick Nelson, vice president of Raytheon’s naval and area mission defense business, said these tests followed recent guidance test vehicle flights..

The upgraded Block 2 missiles contain four-axis independent control actuator systems .

Raytheon plans to install the missile in more than 165 naval ships for Egypt, Germany, Greece, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.