The U.S. Army has signed a contract to produce 870 missiles for the Patriot air defense system.

The website of the U.S. Department of the Army says that the contract with Lockheed Martin is worth $4.5 billion.

The contract provides for PAC-3 MSE missiles with related equipment.

“This multiyear contract award for the PAC-3 MSE missile follows through on the Army’s commitment to stabilize and expand our production capability for this critical weapon system, which is vital to supporting the US Army and Joint Force, along with Ukraine and other allies around the world” said Douglas Bush, the Army’s Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology.

The PAC-3 MSE missile is capable of countering “incoming threats,” including tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles and aircraft.

It is a further development of the PAC-3 missile. Lockheed Martin specialists have increased its size and integrated a new solid fuel rocket motor.

Thanks to the new solutions, the range of interception of air targets has increased to 120 km, and ballistic targets – to 60 km.

To reliably intercept ballistic missiles, the interceptor uses hit-to-kill technology, in which the warhead hits the target directly, causing maximum damage and knocking it off its flight path.

The Patriot air defense missile system has proven its effectiveness in Ukraine and has secured future sales and improvements.

According to the RTX manufacturer, Patriot is currently in service with 19 countries, and there are more than 250 air defense missile systems in total.

Currently, about 550 missiles are produced annually, but there are plans to increase this number to 650.

For this purpose, Lockheed Martin is building an enterprise with automated systems with an area of almost 8000 square meters.