Story ID: 
Blue Skies for Raytheon Missile Defense
By: AIN Staff
Caption: U.S.
Word Count: 192
U.S. defense firm Raytheon is projected to dominate the air defense missile market for the next 10 years, according to a study performed by Forecast International in its annual publication, “The Market for Surface-to-Air Missiles.” FI projected that between 2005 and 2014 more than 88,000 air defense missiles will be produced worldwide, earning revenues of $22.8 billion.

American, European and Russian firms will take the lion’s share of this market, according to the study, which will be at least 53 percent in total. Of this 50-plus portion of the pie, Raytheon’s share is predicted to be 25 percent, which is more than twice that of its nearest competitor.

Forecast International’s senior missile analyst, Larry Dickerson, sees a steady trend of spending levels of about $2.2 billion each year for the next 10 years, but that toward the end of that period overall production numbers worldwide will drop. This will be mostly due to the reduction in the manufacture of man-portable air defense systems, like the Russian-made KBM Igla models, and a decrease in sales for all models of SAMs made by the People’s Republic of China.