Lockheed Martin has been awarded a Eurocopter contract to outfit the Tiger attack helicopter with Hellfire II precision-strike missiles and the all-digital M299 smart missile launcher.
Ground tests of the system are scheduled for October with flight tests to follow in March 2008.
Terms of the contract haven't been disclosed, but the Orlando Sentinel reports Lockheed Martin expects the contract will lead to substantial production work worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The missile has three warhead variants: the high-explosive anti-tank shaped charge; the blast fragmentation warhead for bunkers and multi-room buildings in urban areas; and finally, the metal augmented charge for defeating fighters in enclosed spaces like caves, ships and bunkers.
--Catherine MacRae Hockmuth
