David Wichner Arizona Daily Star - Posted: Thursday, February 4, 2010 12:00 am

A wing kit that adds satellite guidance to torpedoes dropped from aircraft is among the latest technologies that Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is marketing to international customers.

Raytheon's Fish Hawk wing kit - which the company is showing off this week at the Singapore Airshow - is designed to fit on Raytheon's MK-54 lightweight torpedo, which is dropped from anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

The kit guides the torpedo to a target area with a GPS satellite and inertial navigation system and targeting information from an aircraft controller.

Once the system descends to a specific location at lower altitude and speed, the wing kit releases the torpedo, and a small parachute deploys to slow down the torpedo for water entry, according to Raytheon.

After it enters the water, onboard inertial systems and sonar guide the torpedo to the submarine target.

Fish Hawk is being developed by Raytheon for the U.S. Navy's High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept, a program aimed at developing better systems to counter submarines from the skies.

The Fish Hawk was built from the ground up for the Navy's next-generation patrol and anti-sub plane, Boeing's P-8 Poseidon, Mark Borup, Raytheon's Fish Hawk business development manager, said in prepared remarks.

"Unlike other legacy torpedo wing kits that have been redesigned to fit in the P-8, Fish Hawk is purpose-built for the Poseidon, using combat-proven technology," Borup said, citing a successful flight test of the guidance system in 2008.

The Fish Hawk would give the U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region the capability to deploy torpedoes safely from extended ranges, added Borup, who was in Singapore Wednesday.

Lockheed Martin Corp. is developing its own high-altitude torpedo guidance kit, known as the LongShot, to meet the Navy's requirements.

The Navy expects to award a development contract for the torpedo guidance kit specifically for the P-8 Poseidon sometime this year, says a Navy request for information from potential contractors issued in July.

In other news from the Singapore show, Raytheon said Wednesday that it had won a $170 million U.S. Air Force contract to produce AGM-65D and AGM-65G2 infrared-guided Maverick air-to-surface missiles for the United Arab Emirates, under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The all-weather infrared-guided Maverick is ideal to counter "high-speed maneuvering sea targets such as swarming boats," Harry Schulte, vice president of Missile Systems' air warfare systems product line, said in a news release.

Raytheon said it will provide ongoing support for more than 500 new Mavericks. Maverick production supports more than 250 jobs in Tucson; Goleta, Calif.; and Farmington, N.M., Raytheon said.