The Pentagon on Thursday announced the award of a $24.4 billion contract for Raytheon to accelerate production of SM-6 missiles as Washington works to replace the large amount of munitions expended during the Iran war.
The missiles are “critical anti-air and anti-surface warfare munition. President Donald Trump has so far brushed aside questions about the major toll taken on US munition supplies by the war against Iran, which the United States and Israel launched on February 28.
This five-year agreement, with two additional option years, will drive faster production,” the Pentagon said in a statement. The deal “provides the defense industry with the long-term predictability needed to expand workforce capacity and secure critical supply chains,” the statement added. But the Defense Department’s inspector general said last month that “the munitions expenditure on Operation Epic Fury has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply,” using the official name for the operation against Iran.
