RTX’s Raytheon business has been awarded a total of USD 676 million (EUR 626 million) to continue manufacturing the Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wireless-guided (TOW) weapon system for the US Army, RTX announced on 23 October 2024.
Raytheon has actually received two separate US Army contract awards: an annual production contract for USD 430 million in fiscal year 2023 and an additional USD 246 million award in 2024.
“Our TOW production line is active, and we can manufacture up to 10,000 missiles annually,” Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “This combat-proven effector is ready to meet current and future anti-tank guided missile requirements for the US Army, Marines Corps and land forces across the globe.”
Raytheon continues to improve the TOW missile’s design with modernised fuzing and target detection. These upgrades were recently demonstrated in successful fly-to-buy lot acceptance tests of the latest TOW 2B variant of the missile.
“The modernised fusing and target detection updates provide warfighters unparalleled capability, maintaining the fastest target engagement time in the segment. This allows TOW to support and excel during complex urban engagements with varied targets of interest while maintaining superior ATGM capability as a primary mission,” Raytheon stated.
“Additionally, improvements to the overall missile design and packaging will help meet the latest military environmental requirements to support evolving logistical and terrain challenges,” the company added.
To date, Raytheon has delivered more than 700,000 TOW weapon systems to US and international armed forces. Since 2003, the TOW missile system has been used in combat 11,000 times, while the US Department of Defense has provided Ukraine with approximately 13,000 TOW missiles, Raytheon noted.
The TOW weapon system originally entered the US Army inventory in 1970 as the Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missile, but the system has been continuously upgraded and has been offered with wireless guidance since 2010.
