Raytheon SM-6 $335M Production Award: UK Wolverhampton Retains 8% Industrial Share

Technical Summary

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Washington DC, awarded Raytheon Co., Tucson, Arizona, a firm-fixed-price contract modification valued at USD 335,110,022 on 30 April 2026 for the manufacturing, assembly, test, and delivery of Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) Tactical All-Up Rounds. The award is a modification to existing contract N00024-25-C-5409 and is funded from FY2025 Navy weapons procurement appropriations (USD 295.98M) and FY2026 Navy weapons procurement (USD 39.13M).

Place-of-performance distribution is materially relevant for European industrial-base analysis: Tucson, Arizona (35%) and East Camden, Arkansas (35%) take the largest shares; Wolverhampton, United Kingdom (8%) is the third-largest single location, ahead of Elma, New York (3%), Middletown, Ohio (3%) and Anniston, Alabama (2%). The Wolverhampton work is consistent with Raytheon UK's solid rocket motor and propulsion subsystem activity at the Pendeford site, which has historically supported SM-class second-stage and booster-related componentry.

Analysis of Effects

SM-6 (RIM-174 ERAM) is the US Navy's premier multi-role surface-to-air, anti-ship and limited terminal-phase ballistic missile defence round. It is fielded from the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) and uses an Mk 72 booster stack mated to an Mk 104 dual-thrust sustainer with an Mk 125 Mod 2 warhead section. A USD 335M tactical-round modification of this scale signals a sustained production tempo through FY26 deliveries and reinforces the SM-6 line as the Navy's principal extended-air-defence inventory builder ahead of the SM-6 Block IB ramp.

For the United Kingdom, the 8% Wolverhampton share is operationally significant: it preserves UK propulsion-engineering competence on a top-tier US Navy strategic interceptor at a moment when European primes are simultaneously scaling Aster, Camm-MR and Meteor production. Loss of US programme share has been a recurring concern in UK industrial strategy reviews; this modification is a counter-data point.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

SM-6 All-Up Round handling is governed by US Navy NAVSEA OP-5 (Ammunition and Explosives Safety Ashore) and OP-4 (Ammunition Afloat). UK MOD personnel handling Raytheon UK propulsion sub-assemblies operate under Defence Safety Authority OME regulations (DSA 03.OME, which superseded JSP 482) and the relevant Ordnance Safety Regulator hazard-classification regime. Net Explosive Quantity (NEQ) figures for finished All-Up Rounds are restricted; personnel should rely on the most recent UK Munitions Safety Information Notice (MSIN) and US Joint Hazard Classification System (JHCS) entries, not legacy stockpile-drawing data.

Data Gaps

DATA GAP: Quantity of All-Up Rounds covered by this modification is not disclosed in the public contract notice; SM-6 unit prices in recent FY budget exhibits have ranged USD 4.27M–5.0M, implying an order of magnitude in the high-60s to mid-70s units, but this is an estimate only. DATA GAP: Block (IA versus IB) split is unspecified. DATA GAP: Wolverhampton scope of work is not disclosed in the contracting line item; characterisation as rocket-motor or propulsion sub-assembly is inferred from Raytheon UK Pendeford's known capability set, not from the award text. DATA GAP: Foreign Military Sales (FMS) third-party content (Australia, Japan, Germany, UK as buyer) is not visible in this modification line.

AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product. Source rating: A2 (US DoW daily contracts notice, confirmed). UK industrial inference: B3 (logically inferred from corroborated public information).