US Air Force awards Raytheon $34M for laser-guided Maverick missile

May 11, 2010

Waltham, MA--The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon $34.4 million to continue design work on the AGM-65E2/L laser-guided Maverick missile.

Gail Overton

Waltham, MA--The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon Company $34.4 million to continue design work on the AGM-65E2/L laser-guided Maverick missile, the newest variant of the Maverick. The contract requires Raytheon to develop, integrate and test the missile's guidance and control section.

"The laser-guided Maverick is an ideal weapon for urban combat and high-speed maneuvering targets," said Harry Schulte, VP of Raytheon Missile System's Air Warfare Systems product line. "The combat-proven Maverick is integrated on more than 25 aircraft in 33 nations, and we hope to have the newest addition to the Maverick family available for export soon."

The laser-guided Maverick will have an enhanced laser seeker and new software, reducing the risk of collateral damage and enabling aviators to use onboard aircraft lasers to designate targets.

Raytheon Company, with 2009 sales of $25 billion, specializes in defense, homeland security, and other government markets throughout the world and employs 75,000 people worldwide.

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.