US Army orders TOW missiles from Raytheon under contracts totalling $676 million
More than 700,000 TOW missiles have been ordered and it is in service with dozens of countries and forces including the US Army. (Photo: US Army)
The order from the US Army is made of two contracts with some of the weapon systems potentially destined for Ukraine and other set to resupply US stocks of missiles sent to Ukraine.
RTX’s Raytheon will manufacture BGM-71 tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided (TOW) weapon systems for the US Army under two deals totalling US$676 million.
The company’s separate awards comprise an annual production contract for $430 million in FY2023 and an additional $246 million award in 2024.
Raytheon has delivered more than 700,000 TOW weapon systems to US and international armed forces.
The US Department of Defense has provided Ukraine with approximately13,000 TOW missiles and the weapon has featured highly in several of the Ukraine support packages the US government has signed off on.
Tens-of-thousands of missiles have also been supplied to each of Egypt, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UK and the US.
Shephard Defence Insight noted that the unit price was approximately $100,000 meaning the contract would likely be for about 6,000 missiles or less based on possible cost increases of recent years.
Over the many years of the weapon being in service, Raytheon has continually conducted efforts to improve it.
In July 2022, the US Army and Raytheon Missiles & Defense fired two qualification shots of the 2B variant of the TOW anti-tank guided missile (ASTGM) weapon system.
The TOW 2B ATGMs deployed in the trial reached beyond the 4,000m range and demonstrated accurate targeting and warhead penetration against tactically representative targets.
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