Moving Van

Raytheon plans to relocate its Patriot New Equipment Training program to Ft. Sill, OK, beginning early next year, according to a company statement.

The move is in response to the Army's Base Realignment and Closure-related decision to relocate the Air Defense School to Ft. Sill. The program trains Army personnel on upgrades to the Patriot system.

Raytheon's Patriot missile business would likely not be hurt anytime soon by the next-generation Medium Extended Air Defense System, regardless of what decision is made on the latter program, according to company CEO William Swanson. As Inside Missile Defense reported earlier this month:

Patriot has 12 customers around the world, compared to three for MEADS, (Swanson) said last week, adding: "We expect Patriot to be around for a long time." MEADS is seen as an eventual replacement for Patriot.

Funding for the MEADS trinational missile-defense program is divided among partner nations: 58 percent from the United States, 25 percent from Germany and 17 percent from Italy. Lockheed Martin is developing the system in conjunction with Lenflugkorpersysteme in Germany and MBDA-Italia; the current design-and-development contract is for roughly $3.5 billion. MEADS is envisioned to eventually replace the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system, which Raytheon developed.

Sister publication Inside the Army reported last month that with the Army's air and missile defense portfolio review in full swing, service acquisition chief Malcolm O'Neill and Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly had met recently to discuss how they might work together on MEADS.