The Hague, Netherlands. 12 October 2016. The Royal Netherlands Defence Materiel Organisation awarded Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) a contract to upgrade its Patriot Integrated Air and Missile Defense system with the Modern Man Station user interface, a move to significantly boost the nation’s missile defense capability.
“The Netherlands will continuously modernize Patriot as they intend to keep it in their inventory until at least 2040,” said Ralph Acaba, Raytheon vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense. “The Modern Man Station is an important step in the Royal Netherlands Army’s plan to upgrade their entire Patriot inventory to the most advanced capability currently available.”
At the end of 2015, The Netherlands announced its decision to continue investing in Patriot. In 2014, two Patriot batteries from The Netherlands concluded a two-year deployment to Turkey, where they helped defend that country from ballistic missiles.
“Patriot remains a pillar of NATO missile defense because it is the only fielded, combat-proven air and missile defense system capable of outpacing the evolving threat,” said Joe DeAntona, Raytheon vice president of business development for Integrated Air and Missile Defense. “This upgrade will make it easier for The Netherlands to operate Patriot, and will provide them enhanced situational awareness.”
The Modern Man Station, or MMS, is the latest operator-machine interface upgrade to Patriot command and control shelters. It provides state-of-the-art, full-color graphical user interface with LCD displays. It also has touch screens and soft keys for enhanced situational awareness, with best-in-class command and control decision support tools. MMS is used to identify and display airborne objects; track potential threats; and engage hostile targets, including aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles.
The Modern Man Stations were procured via a direct commercial sales contract. Both the quantity of MMS and the total value of the contract are undisclosed.
