Pentagon’s No.1 weapons supplier Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded a $723,5 million modification to domestic and Foreign Military Sales contract to procure a variety of Hellfire II missile variants.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday, Lockheed Martin received a $723,5 million for Hellfire II missiles for the U.S. Army and Lebanon, Netherlands, France.
Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2022.
Hellfire II and Longbow Hellfire have been used in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), with more than 600 Hellfire rounds fired to date. At one point, the Lockheed Martin Hellfire team was asked to accelerate delivery of 84 blast fragmentation rounds, from six months to less than two weeks, to support the war effort; the missiles arrived a day ahead of schedule.
All Hellfire II variants have been used successfully in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), with more than 1,000 missiles fired to date.
Hellfire is approved for international sales both through the foreign military sales system and direct commercial sales. In addition to all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, the armed forces of 16 nations have selected Hellfire.
With more than 22,000 rounds delivered since production began in 1994, Hellfire II has been successfully integrated with a wide array of platforms, including the U.S. Army’s Apache and Kiowa Warrior helicopters; the U.S. Marine Corps’ Cobra; the U.S. Navy’s Seahawk helicopter; the UK’s Apache attack helicopter; the Eurocopter Tiger and the U.S. Air Force’s Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. Norway and Sweden employ Hellfire missiles launched from tripods in a coastal defense mode.