It is a breath of fresh air for Boeing as the company faces significant economic difficulties. According to an announcement from the Pentagon on Wednesday, the American manufacturer has won two contracts totaling more than $ 2 billion to deliver more than 1,000 surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles to Ryad.
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A first contract of $ 1.722 billion relates to the modernization of the cruise missile SLAM ER from Boeing Defense, as well as the delivery of 650 copies " in support of the government of Saudi Arabia ", specifies the Pentagon in the document which announces daily Defense contracts. The SLAM ER is a GPS-guided air-to-ground cruise missile with a range of up to 155 nautical miles (approximately 290 kilometers). The contract must be completed in December 2028.
The Pentagon also announced a contract of nearly $ 660 million to deliver a new version of the Harpoon anti-ship missile, known as Block II, more than 400 of which to Saudi Arabia. Others will be delivered to Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Qatar and India. In a separate statement, Boeing, which estimates the contracts at $ 3.1 billion in total, says that the latter will not only ensure continued production of the Harpoon until the end of 2026, but also allow restart the production line of SLAM ER. The manufacturer specifies that it delivered its last missile of this type in 2008.
