U.S. weapons maker Northrop Grumman Corporation announced on Tuesday that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy for Lot 8 Full-Rate Production of the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM).

The contract, announced Friday by the Corporation, is worth $167 million and includes options for increased quantities for the Department of the Navy, missiles for the Italian Air Force and missiles for foreign military sales.

“AARGM is able to rapidly engage air-defense threats,” said Cary Ralston, vice president and general manager, defense electronic systems, Northrop Grumman. “We are proud to provide our warfighters with this advanced and affordable capability.”

AARGM is a U.S. Navy and Italian Air Force international cooperative acquisition program with the U.S. Navy as the executive agent. AARGM is currently deployed with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps on the F/A-18C/D Hornet, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft. AARGM is also integrated on the Italian Air Force’s Tornado Electronic Combat aircraft.

The company’s website said the AGM-88E designed to upgrade the AGM-88 High-Speed, Anti-Radiation Missile system (HARM), AARGM features an advanced, digital, anti-radiation homing sensor, millimeter wave (MMW) radar terminal seeker, precise Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) guidance, net-centric connectivity, and Weapon Impact Assessment transmit (WIA).

New capabilities for the warfighter include:

• Anti-radar strike with advanced signal processing and vastly improved frequency coverage, detection range and field of view
• Time-critical, standoff strike with supersonic GPS/INS point-to-point or point-to-MMW-terminal guidance
• Missile-impact zone control to prevent collateral damage through tightly coupled, Digital Terrain Elevation Database-aided GPS/INS
• Counter-emitter shutdown through active MMW-radar terminal guidance
• WIA transmission prior-to-impact for bomb damage assessment

Northrop Grumman has teamed with MBDA to provide this advanced, cost-effective weapon system to U.S. and approved allied customers.