On 24 September, the U.S. Department of War announced the signing of a framework agreement with RTX Corporation for continued work on Stinger guided surface-to-air missiles. The contract, valued at $567.6 million, will run until the end of September 2031, although no funding was released at the time of signing.
According to the department’s statement, RTX is to be responsible for the supply of Stinger missiles and the additional equipment needed for effective system operation. Both US federal authorities and RTX have been working for some time on restarting Stinger missile production due to an “urgent operational need”.
This urgency stems from efforts to replenish stockpiles following the transfer of a large number of missiles to Ukraine, and to meet the growing demand from foreign buyers. Notably, the export variants include both the man-portable version and the air-to-air version, which can be carried by platforms such as the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
