Roket Sanayii ve Ticaret AS, also known as Roketsan, which is based in the Turkish capital of Ankara, has agreed to a subcontracting deal with Raytheon to perform integration work and carry out testing on the control actuation system for the Patriot GEM-T missile for the United Arab Emirates.

Roketsan will cooperate with other Raytheon subcontractors in Turkey and the United States to carry out the main assembly operations on the project at its main factory in Ankara.

Raytheon described Roketsan as the U.S. company's "first major trans-Atlantic supplier strategically located to support the 11 countries in Europe and Asia, including several in the Middle East, that have chosen Patriot as a key component of their air- and missile-defense programs."

"Roketsan joins Raytheon as a key strategic partner providing integrated air and missile defense to a growing number of international customers," Sanjay Kapoor, vice president for Patriot programs at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, announced in a statement that the company issued Wednesday.

"To have a supplier with Roketsan's track record and technical expertise located in Turkey, the crossroads between Europe and Asia, will enable us to be even more responsive to our current and potential customers in the region," he said. "Furthermore, Turkey is a stalwart member of NATO and is a key strategic partner of the United States."

Roketsan has been operating since 1988. Raytheon described the company as "a proven leader in missile and rocket programs and a major part of Turkey's defense industry."

"We are delighted to be working with Raytheon on the Patriot program," said Huseyin Baysak, general manager at Roketsan. "We have the engineering expertise, experience, talented people, suppliers and facilities to produce precise and reliable control actuation system assemblies for the GEM-T."

"Patriot is a combat-proven system ensuring the security of so many countries from air and missile threats. We're proud to be recognized for the capabilities we bring in what has been a very successful program for a long time and is only getting better," Baysak said.

Raytheon said its IDS operation remained the prime contractor for the Patriot Air and Missile Defense weapon system and the system integrator of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile into the PAC-3 system.

Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that Paul Shattuck, Airborne Laser Beam Control/Fire Control chief engineer and technical director, and five of his government and industry ABL colleagues had been presented with a U.S. Missile Defense Agency Technology Pioneer Award. "The award recognizes the team for achieving a host of technology breakthroughs that have culminated in a fully integrated system with the advantages of speed-of-light destruction of ballistic missile threats from a highly mobile platform," the company said.

Shattuck and his colleagues received the award from the MDA on March 23 at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 7th Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference in Washington, D.C., Lockheed Martin said.

The company said Shattuck had played a central role "in developing, integrating, testing and demonstrating the Lockheed Martin-developed Beam Control/Fire Control System, which focuses and directs ABL's High Energy Laser."

His five colleagues who were also honored were Steven Lamberson, chief scientist, ABL Program Office, U.S. Missile Defense Agency; Donald Clapp, chief engineer and mission-assurance manager at Boeing; David Morris, chief scientist and system-performance manager at Boeing; Harold Schall, chief engineer for integration and test and senior technical fellow at Boeing, and Jeffrey Hartlove, ABL deputy program manager at Northrop Grumman, the Lockheed Martin statement said.

"We are proud to be part of the ABL program and very proud to see Paul and his colleagues receive this recognition on behalf of the entire ABL government-industry team," said Doug Graham, vice president of advanced programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. "This is an exciting time for this revolutionary program as we approach our ballistic missile shoot-down demonstration later this year."

Lockheed Martin said the Beam Control/Fire Control System worked in harnessing and providing direction for the Airborne Laser's High Energy Laser beam in ground tests that were conducted in 2008 on the ABL's modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

"The team now is preparing for flight testing of the entire, integrated ABL system that will culminate in an airborne intercept test against an unarmed ballistic missile later this year," the statement said.

Boeing built and adapted the 747 that carries the Airborne Laser and its Battle Management System and functions as the overall systems integrator on the program. Boeing's industry partners on the program are Northrop Grumman, which makes the High Energy Laser and the Beacon Illuminator Laser, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which develops the Beam Control/Fire Control System as well as the nose-mounted turret for the system.

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