US Army to purchase 1,300 Stinger MANPADS

The US Army has signed an agreement to purchase new Stinger MANPADS.

This was announced by Raytheon.

The new purchase is necessary to replenish the US Army’s reserves after sending approximately 1,400 Stinger MANPADS to Ukraine as military assistance to counter Russian aggression.

Raytheon will produce 1,300 new Stinger systems under an agreement with the Pentagon.

The contract includes provisions for engineering support, as well as testing equipment and technical support needed to address obsolescence of manufactured systems, modernization of key components and acceleration of production of new missiles.

“We’re aligned with the U.S. Army on a plan that ensures we fulfill our current foreign military sale order, while replenishing Stingers provided to Ukraine and accelerating production,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense.

Contract work and funding will be determined with each individual order, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2026.

The Pentagon has not ordered Stinger anti-aircraft systems for 18 years, so some component supply chains have been disrupted.

Additionally, it was noted that Stinger is mostly manually manufactured, while a lot of Raytheon employees are accustomed to manufacturing more modern systems such as Tomahawk cruise missiles or an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile.

Stinger is a portable anti-aircraft missile system of the “surface-to-air” class with an infrared homing head developed by the American company General Dynamics.

Designed to defeat low-flying helicopters and enemy aircraft at oncoming and catch-up flight courses in condition of natural and infrared countermeasures.

Recently, Ukrainian paratroopers reported that with the help of a Stinger MANPADS, they destroyed a combat helicopter Mi-24 (or Mi-35 – ed.) of the Russian invasion forces.