US Army Fires Raytheon Griffin Missile During Forward Operating Base Protection Test

Mis­sile engages tar­gets in ground-launch scenario

SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The U.S. Army pre­cise­ly engaged tar­gets using the Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) Grif­fin B mis­sile as part of a test to pro­tect for­ward oper­at­ing bases (FOBs) and small com­bat outposts. 

“Grif­fin enables ground forces to pro­tect their loca­tions by pre­cise­ly engag­ing tar­gets in a 360-degree radius,” said Har­ry Schulte, vice pres­i­dent of Raytheon Mis­sile Sys­tems’ Air War­fare Sys­tems prod­uct line. “Grif­fin gives warfight­ers a com­bat-proven capa­bil­i­ty that is ready today, ful­ly devel­oped and in production.”

Dur­ing the test, warfigth­ers fired a Grif­fin mis­sile from a launch­er at a sta­t­ic tar­get more than 4 kilo­me­ters (2.5 miles) away. Using GPS coor­di­nates gen­er­at­ed by a teth­ered aero­stat, the mis­sile direct­ly impact­ed the tar­get, achiev­ing all test objectives.

About the Griffin

The Grif­fin enables the warfight­er to engage tar­gets via a user-friend­ly graph­ic inter­face and guide the weapon to the tar­get using GPS coor­di­nates or laser des­ig­na­tion. To max­i­mize effec­tive­ness, the user can choose to engage the tar­get with height of burst, point det­o­na­tion or fuze delay. The weapon pro­vides the sol­dier with a capa­bil­i­ty in terms of size, weight, pre­ci­sion and oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty that is unmatched by any oth­er weapon in its class.

The Grif­fin mis­sile is in pro­duc­tion and inte­grat­ed on the C‑130 Har­vest Hawk. Grif­fin A is an aft-eject mis­sile designed for employ­ment from non-con­ven­tion­al plat­forms such as the C‑130 air­craft. Grif­fin B is a for­ward-fir­ing mis­sile that launch­es from rotary- and fixed-wing air­craft and can be used in ground-launch applications.

Grif­fin is 45 inch­es long and weighs 45 pounds in its launch tube.
Grif­fin can be inte­grat­ed onto a wide range of mil­i­tary vehi­cles and can be used in ground-launch appli­ca­tions.
Grif­fin has a proven track record of suc­cess­ful rapid inte­gra­tion.
About Raytheon

Raytheon Com­pa­ny, with 2011 sales of $25 bil­lion, is a tech­nol­o­gy and inno­va­tion leader spe­cial­iz­ing in defense, home­land secu­ri­ty and oth­er gov­ern­ment mar­kets through­out the world. With a his­to­ry of inno­va­tion span­ning 90 years, Raytheon pro­vides state-of-the-art elec­tron­ics, mis­sion sys­tems inte­gra­tion and oth­er capa­bil­i­ties in the areas of sens­ing; effects; and com­mand, con­trol, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and intel­li­gence sys­tems, as well as a broad range of mis­sion sup­port ser­vices. With head­quar­ters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 71,000 peo­ple world­wide. For more about Raytheon, vis­it us at www.raytheon.com and fol­low us on Twit­ter at @raytheon.

Note to Editors

Grif­fin® is a reg­is­tered trade­mark of Raytheon Company.