May 7 2008
Raytheon Company and Emirates Advanced Investments of the United Arab Emirates have signed a cooperative development agreement for a semiactive laser guided 70 mm (2.75-inch) rocket designed to provide increased precision and lethality compared with conventional unguided rockets.
"The Laser Guided Rocket project with Raytheon is a very important defense industry initiative for the United Arab Emirates," said Hussain I. Al Hammadi, Emirates Advanced Investments' chief executive officer. "This program represents a hands-on development effort for our engineers that will provide future benefits for the armed forces of both our countries. It is designed to destroy targets ranging from tactical armored vehicles to high-speed naval craft and will provide a very affordable precision weapon for attack helicopters."
Under the cooperative development agreement, the Laser Guided Rocket program represents a transfer of technology to the United Arab Emirates. Subject to approval of the respective companies' governments, Raytheon Missile Systems and Emirates Advanced Investments will produce the laser guided rocket for national and international customers.
The agreement details a complete development and qualification program and provides for a follow-on proposal to supply a commercial off-the-shelf laser guided rocket for military customers in the United Arab Emirates, United States and other countries. Initially, the laser guided rocket will be qualified on a single United Arab Emirates' platform, with later integration onto additional platforms.
"This program is also intended to benefit the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps," said Richard Janik, Missile Systems' Laser Guided Rocket program manager, "because they would be able to obtain a fully qualified laser guided rocket that meets or exceeds all the guided 70 mm rocket requirements of the United States, without expending tens of millions of dollars of investment in research, evaluation, and testing."
In addition to the cooperative development agreement, Emirates Advanced Investments and Raytheon have signed a collaborative agreement to explore similar, future joint programs. "The current Laser Guided Rocket project can be a model for a collaborative agreement," said Hussain I. Al Hammadi, "under which we would work together to develop future products and establish a long- term partnership between our companies."