The U.S. Navy has given Raytheon a $77 million contract to Raytheon “for the engineering, test equipment, material and management necessary to transition Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) Block 2 engineering, manufacturing and development into low-rate manufacturing, fabricating and production of ESSM Block 2 missiles.”
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By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Adrian White [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Block 2 variant uses dual semi-active/active radar homing rather than just semi-active radar homing of Block 1.