- Raytheon will supply SeaRAM launchers, Blast Test Vehicles, and technical services for the first three Sea3000 frigates built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan, with deliveries starting late 2028.
- Australia's Sea3000 program will replace the Anzac-class with 11 Upgraded Mogami-class frigates, with work performed at Raytheon's Louisville, Kentucky facility.
Raytheon has secured a contract from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to supply SeaRAM ship self-defense systems for Australia’s Sea3000 General Purpose Frigate program, the company announced.
Under the contract, Raytheon will supply SeaRAM launchers, Blast Test Vehicles, and technical services to support installation and testing for the first three ships in the Sea3000 program, which are being built in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Deliveries are expected to begin in late 2028, with work performed at Raytheon’s Louisville, Kentucky facility.
The Sea3000 program is replacing Australia’s aging Anzac-class frigates with 11 Upgraded Mogami-class frigates, a procurement that represents one of the most significant Royal Australian Navy surface combatant acquisitions in decades.
The SeaRAM system that Raytheon is supplying combines two well-established naval weapon systems into a single integrated terminal defense package. The foundation is the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, the 20mm radar-guided gatling gun that has been a standard last-ditch defense system on U.S. Navy and allied warships since the 1980s, providing autonomous engagement of incoming missiles and aircraft within a few kilometers of the protected vessel. SeaRAM replaces the Phalanx gun mount with an eleven-round Rolling Airframe Missile launcher while retaining the Phalanx sensor suite, search radar, and fire control system. The result is a weapon that engages threats at significantly greater range than the gun-based Phalanx, RAM has a range of approximately nine kilometers, compared to roughly two kilometers for the Phalanx gun, while maintaining the autonomous engagement capability that makes close-in defense systems valuable when reaction time is measured in seconds rather than minutes.
Barbara Borganovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon, described the capability gap SeaRAM fills in direct terms. “SeaRAM extends the defensive reach of a ship beyond traditional close in weapon system ranges,” Borganovi said in the company’s announcement. “By integrating SeaRAM on the Royal Australian Navy’s new surface combatants, Australia gains a proven, highly effective terminal air and missile defense layer for its future fleet.” That extension of defensive reach matters in a threat environment defined by increasingly capable anti-ship cruise missiles, supersonic sea-skimming weapons, and the growing proliferation of drone-based naval threats that can saturate a ship’s defenses through volume rather than individual capability.
The Rolling Airframe Missile at the heart of SeaRAM is a compact, infrared-homing weapon originally developed as a joint U.S.-German program in the 1970s and 1980s and now in its Block 2 configuration. RAM uses passive radio frequency and infrared dual-mode guidance to home on the radar and heat emissions of incoming threats without requiring the launching ship to illuminate the target with its own radar, which reduces the ship’s electromagnetic signature during an engagement. The missile’s small size and the eleven-round launcher’s compact footprint make SeaRAM installable on a wider range of ship classes than larger missile systems like the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, which requires vertical launch cells and significantly more deck space and topside weight. For a frigate-sized hull with constrained topside real estate, that installation flexibility is a genuine operational advantage.
Australia’s Sea3000 program represents one of the most consequential naval procurement decisions the country has made in the current strategic environment. The 11 Upgraded Mogami-class frigates replacing the Anzac class are entering service as Australia’s defense posture shifts to account for a significantly more contested Indo-Pacific, with Chinese naval expansion, North Korean missile development, and the broader proliferation of advanced anti-ship weapons creating a threat environment that the Anzac class’s aging sensor and weapon systems were not designed to address. Equipping the new frigates with SeaRAM as a terminal defense layer adds a proven, autonomous last line of protection against the cruise missiles and drone threats that define the current and projected naval threat environment in the region.