Monday, February 09, 2009

UAE Buys Patriot Parts Worth $246M

UAE Buys Patriot Parts Worth $246M
(NSI News Source Info) February 10, 2009: Raytheon announced another contract Feb. 9 for its Patriot program, this one a $246 million contract for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to provide spare parts for the new Patriot systems Raytheon is building there. The United Arab Emirates is now the biggest customer for Patriot, thanks to an agreement in December worth up to $3.3 billion for Raytheon to build Patriot Configuration 3 systems, the latest Patriot air and missile defense system, and provide whole life support and related training for those systems. The latest deal is a Foreign Military Sale through the U.S. government. Raytheon will provide spare parts to support the 10 Patriot fire units the Emirates ordered in December. The system will replace the medium-range Hawk Air Defense System the United Arab Emirates bought in the 1980s. Raytheon also is upgrading the U.S. Army's Configuration 2 systems to Configuration 3 systems. Company representatives said this is probably the last UAE Patriot contract this year, but Raytheon also is hoping to win a contract this year to provide the country with Surface Launched Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) systems. "We won Patriot [for the Emirates] and SLAMRAAM, we think, is next," said Sanjay Kapoor, Raytheon's vice president of Patriot programs. The company sells Patriot systems and services to 12 countries including the United States, but is looking to expand sales for additional countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The December deal to provide the United Arab Emirates with Patriot systems is the first deal in some time under which Raytheon will build those systems from the ground up, Kapoor said. "The UAE is brand-new, ground-up fire units. By default, it makes it easier for the next country or buyer because now the line becomes 'hot,' " Kapoor said. "We get geared up, we get facilitized. We're going through a massive amount of technology refresh[ing] and modernization. The supplier base is getting restarted; test equipment is all getting reset. All that up-front cost, all that up-front work is being done now. Obviously, subsequent countries will benefit from that."

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