The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $536 million contract modification for sustainment services on the F-22 Raptor fifth-generation fighter jet, the company announced Wednesday. The funding is connected to a Performance-Based Logistics contract, which provides overall sustainment for F-22 weapons systems at US bases globally for 2017. The F-22 made its combat debut against ISIS in 2014 and deployed to Europe for the first time last year as part of the United States’ effort to assure allies wary of Russian aggression in the region. (See also: Keeping F-22s Modern.)
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.