The guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt arrives at its new homeport in San Diego in 2016. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Emiline L. M. Senn/U.S. Navy

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has received a $17.6 million contract for AN/SPY-3 (V)1 radar equipment work in support of the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer.

Work on the contract, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, will be performed in Andover, Mass., Portsmouth, R.I., and McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be finished by June 2021. Navy fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion funding in the amount of $15 million will be obligated at time of award.


The AN/SPY-3 (V)1 is a development of the AN/SPY-1 radar in use aboard the Arleigh Burke-class and Ticonderoga-class destroyers and cruisers. It forms a key part of their AEGIS weapons system designed for coordinating naval combat operations.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer has stealth capabilities and is armed with vertical launch systems for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, as well as the Advanced Gun System.

The AGS was originally designed to use the Long Range Land Attack Projectile with a maximum range of over 60 miles. The 155mm round produced by Lockheed Martin is rocket assisted and precision guided and was successful in testing, but ballooning costs left the projectile costing over $800,000 a round, roughly as much as a Tomahawk cruise missile.

The problems have lead the Navy to designate the Zumwalt-class as an anti-ship platform rather then a shore bombardment vessel. The modifications include integrating the long-range SM-6 missile, which includes anti-air and anti-ship capabilities.

Two of the ships have been built, with one other still under construction. The original planned production of 32 has been scaled back to three due to cost overruns and the ship's nearly $4 billion price tag.