$5.9M to Upgrade 310 AIM-9 Sidewinders for Pakistan (updated)
Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, AZ received a $5.9 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed price contract (N00019-03-C-0003) for the conversion of 310 AIM-9M Sidewinder short range air-air missiles to AIM-9M-8/9s, the version before the fifth-generation AIM-9X. The contract also includes 10 Captive Air Training Missiles and 20 guidance control sections for the Government of Pakistan under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Tucson, AZ (84%); Rocket Center, WV (13%); and Andover, MA (3%), and is expected to be complete in October 2007. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract.
The AIM-9M can engage targets from all aspects, and its IR counter-countermeasures and background discrimination capability are better than those of its own predecessors. It also has a reduced-smoke rocket motor. Deliveries of the M model to the USAF began in 1983.
DID has now talked to Raytheon, and confirmed that this sale is connected to an October 2005 purchase of 300 AIM-9M Sidewinders by Pakistan as a modification of Pakistan’s existing AIM-9M stockpile. According to Raytheon, the October 2005 purchase represented the first sale of the AIM-9Ms to Pakistan. DID has also covered a $650 million weapons package request placed in June 2006, which includes another 200 AIM-9M-8/9s and is in turn part of a $5.1 billion upgrade & expansion of Pakistan’s F-16 fleet.
