Washington: McDonnellDouglas Corp has received a fresh 15.79-million dollar contract to make 10Harpoon anti-ship missiles for Pakistan,the Pentagon said today.

The company, a subsidiary of Boeing, will supply the missiles as part of acontract with the Naval Air Systems Command under the Foreign Military Salesprogramme, it said.

Pakistanwants to use the Harpoon missiles with its P-3C maritime surveillance aircraftthat are being refurbished to improve their attack capabilities and with itssurface ships and submarines.

The contract is for 10 Harpoon Block II, grade B all-up- round missiles and anequal number of MK631 containers. The bulk of the work will be carried out in Missouri, and some parts will be executed in other partsof the US.

The Pentagon also announced the contract funds will not expire at the end ofthe current fiscal.

Last June, the Defence Security Cooperation Agency had informed Congress about Pakistan'srequest for an assortment of missiles, including the Harpoon Block II missiles,containers and missile modifications. It had placed the value of the deal at370 million dollars.

According to Defence Industry Daily, the Harpoon Block II is an upgradeprogramme designed to improve the missile's ability to attack targets incongested littoral areas, where nearby land masses and other ships can providecover for targets.

Harpoon Block II missiles can be deployed from all platforms that have theHarpoon missile system by using existing command and launch equipment.

<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->