The US Department of Defense has awarded Raytheon a $279.2-million contract to provide management support for the army’s Land-Based Phalanx Weapon System.
Locations for covered functional support and corresponding funding will be determined with each order through July 2030.
Throughout the initiative, the company will coordinate its efforts with the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, which oversees materiel and supply for the force’s service members.
The Phalanx Weapon System
The Phalanx was originally designed by General Dynamics and is now produced by Raytheon Technologies.
It is a gun-based close-in weapon system typically installed aboard naval vessels for automated defense against surface and aerial threats.
The weapon heavily relies on radar to acquire targets and fires 20-millimeter armor-piercing sabots in rapid bursts.
The system is capable of firing 4,500 rounds per minute, with a muzzle velocity of approximately 3,600 feet (1,097 meters) per second, and has a maximum range of 6,000 yards (5,486 meters).
The Phalanx’s land-based variant, the Centurion, is part of the American land forces’ Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) air defense artillery that uses high-explosive incendiary tracer, with applications similar to Israel’s Iron Dome.
Currently, the Centurion is among the over 1,000 operational short-range air defense systems in the US Army.
