Raytheon (RTN), one of America's premier defense contractors, is going overseas to help keep the South Korean Navy out of harm's way.

On Monday, Raytheon confirmed that late last year, it received a $123 million contract from the Republic of Korea Navy to supply the latter with nine Phalanx Block 1B Close-In Weapon Systems for installation aboard ROK FFX Batch II frigates and AOE II-class fast combat support ships.

Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar linked to a 20 mm gun system that automatically acquires, tracks and destroys incoming missile, UAV, and aircraft that have penetrated all other ship defense systems. Put another way, if defensive measures have failed to intercept a threat farther out, Phalanx is a warship's last line of defense before being hit by a missile. Raytheon has

More built and sold more than 890 Phalanx systems to the navies of 25 different nations around the globe. Deliveries of this latest batch of Phalanxes are expected to begin in 2016, and to continue through 2022.


Raytheon's Phalanx gun system. Source: Raytheon.