Danish air force contract value unknown

By Nate Searing

Inside Tucson Business

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Raytheon Missile Systems will begin producing bomb guidance kits for the Royal Danish Air Force, the company announced last week, but company officials said the agreement will not affect pending layoffs that were announced to employees earlier this month.

"That's like comparing apples to oranges," said Alan Fischer, a Raytheon spokesman. "The two are not connected."

The size of the contract with the Royal Danish Air Force has not been disclosed.

Raytheon sent notice to an unknown number of its local manufacturing employees on July 8, citing that slowed production orders had promoted the need to trim employment roles, "before the end of the month," said Sara Hammond, Raytheon spokeswoman.

The workforce to be impacted is involved with five of the company's manufacturing programs, none of which is related to the bomb guidance kit, Hammond said.

"They may opt for early retirement orders could increase," Hammond said last week. "They (the total number laid off) could be as low as zero, it could be much higher it's just not something we are going to put a number on right now."

The cost of the new contract, as well as the number of kits to be produced by the Tucson manufacturer, is not being made public at the request of the Dutch air force, Fischer said.

Unlike typical military supply contracts from governments outside the United Stateswhere Raytheon sells the product to the U.S. military which in turns sells it to the third-party governmentthis contract is a direct commercial sale.

The U.S. State Department approved a plan to allow Raytheon Missile Systems to produce Enhanced Paveway II bomb guidance kits for the Royal Danish Air Force last week, Fischer said.

Deliveries are expected to begin in April and mark the first acquisition by the Dutch of the guidance systems that turn the Paveway II bomb into a precision guided weapon.

The kit enhances the weaponry with a global positioning system, inertial navigation system and laser guidance capabilities, allowing for precision even in poor weather conditions and against mobile targets.

"The enhanced Paveway II, or EP2, was combat proven in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freed," said Ben Ford, the Paveway program director for Raytheon Missile Systems. More than 225,000 Paveway IIs have been delivered to the U.S. Air Force and Navy and more than 35 allied nations for use on 25 different aircraft, the company reported.

Nate Searing may be contacted at nsearing@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4238.