The Indian Ministry of Defense has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to acquire Stinger air-to-air missiles made by Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon. The $3.1 billion deal with the U.S. includes 245 Stinger air-to-air missiles, along with launchers and engineering support, combat helicopters, weapons, radars and electronic warfare suites.
“India joins nations around the globe who recognize that air-to-air Stinger can be a key component of attack and light attack helicopter mission configurations,” said Duane Gooden, Raytheon Land Warfare Systems vice president. “Stinger significantly improves the ability of the aircraft to successfully perform today’s missions while countering existing threats.”
Stinger has more than 270 fixed- and rotary-wing intercepts, and is deployed in 19 nations. It not only has a surface-to-air capability from land and sea, but also an air-to-air capability that can be integrated into most fixed- or rotary-wing platforms, reports Defense-Aerospace.
