DATE: November 17, 1998

        In a unique agreement between the U.S. Navy and The Boeing Company, the Harpoon Block II Cruise Missile has been approved for engineering, manufacturing, and development. The upgraded version of the Block IG missile will be marketed to international allies.

        In this arrangement Boeing will fund development of the missile and ship launch control variants with an eye toward future sales to both the U.S. Navy and international customers. Although Harpoon is not in the Navy’s current budget, this agreement allows the Navy to reap the benefits of a more advanced cruise missile system in the future, without investing money today. In the near term, the Navy will support test and evaluation with government-furnished equipment and information, and provide program oversight.

        CAPT A.J. Benn, the Navy’s Program Manager for Harpoon said, "I’m truly excited about entering this agreement since it is in keeping with the streamlining initiatives and business practices we’ve talked about over the last year. Industry and government teaming such as this can provide higher quality products faster and cheaper. When we can help realize a product faster, everyone wins."

        The Harpoon Cruise Missile is the Navy's premiere anti-ship weapon, designed for deployment on surface ships, aircraft, submarines, and ground-based installations. Historically, it has been used for open ocean combat operations and fleet scenarios well away from land. Harpoon has demonstrated more than 97 percent reliability in operational tests and has a 100 percent success rate in combat launches.

        In the development of Block II, the customer will find the integration of a global positioning system/inertial navigation system, and the software, mission computer, and the GPS antenna and receiver from the Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response. This will expand Harpoon’s capability to include coastal, pierside, and land targets, such as coastal defense sites, SAM sites, exposed aircraft, port/industrial facilities, and ships in port.

        The multi-mission Block II is deployable from all current Harpoon missile system platforms with either existing command and launch equipment or the new Advanced Harpoon Weapon Control System. With initiation of engineering and manufacturing development in 1998, Block II will achieve initial operating capability around the turn of the century.

        To learn more about the Program Executive Office, Cruise Missiles and Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, log on to our website at www.peocu.js.mil.

For further information contact:
Cathy Partusch, Public Affairs Officer, PEO (CU)             or             Sandy Schroeder, Deputy PAO
Office: 301.757.6316 Pager: 888.534.6628                                         Office: 301.757.5289