Ramona Adams
The U.S. Navy has conducted flight tests of the Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 weapon system to validate whether the missile is ready to obtain full operational capability.
Raytheon said Thursday four SM-6 missiles were launched throughout the “graduation” tests to engage shore-launched, sub- or supersonic targets.
Mike Campisi, Raytheon SM-6 senior program director, said the Navy started to deploy SM-6s four years ago but the company has continued to carry out software upgrades and test the missile in various scenarios to study its capacity.
SM-6 is designed to perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and terminal ballistic missile defense.
Raytheon noted that approximately 330 SM-6 missiles have been delivered from the company’s Huntsville, Alabama-based production facility.
The Defense Department approved the sale of SM-6 weapons to various international customers in January.
