Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded a US$768.3m (A$1.12bn) contract by the Pentagon to produce an unspecified number of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles under Lot 33 production.

The contract will see 47 percent of the value of the contract for the AMRAAMs produced for 21 nations including Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Canada and the UK, with the balance being for the US services.

The AIM-120 AMRAAM is currently the US’s premier medium-range air-to-air missile. There are several current production versions of the AMRAAM including the AIM-120C-5, C-7, and AIM-120D, and these are available in several discreet sub-variants depending on the customer and their requirement.

The RAAF operates all three current versions of the AMRAAM, and employs the weapon from the F/A-18A-B Hornet, F/A-18F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and F-35A Lightning II. The Australian Army will operate the AMRAAM from its new Project LAND 19 Phase 7B Enhanced NASAMS system from 2022.