Raytheon, Astrium to jointly seek NATO missile defense contract TUCSON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Astrium and Raytheon have signed a teaming agreement in pursuit of a contract for work on NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The accord between Astrium, headquartered in France, and Raytheon was announced Monday and formalizes plans to become lead systems engineers and integrators for the program, Raytheon said. "With more than 30 years' experience in ballistic missiles development and production, ballistic battle analysis, and threat modeling, Astrium is a leader in European missile defense," said George Mavko, Raytheon Missile Systems' director of European Missile Defense. Combined with Raytheon's decades of experience in ballistic missile defense interceptors, radars and space sensors, this partnership will provide Europe the best, most affordable missile defense protection. NATO's BMD Program oversees the development and execution of ballistic missile defense capabilities, which includes the defense of European populations and territories. The integration contract to be awarded will establish the contractual requirements for territorial defense, while helping create a NATO command-and-control network architecture. The contract will have a seven-year period of performance and an estimated value of $91 million. "This transatlantic team has a proven, successful track record supporting national and NATO missile defense," said Yannick Devouassoux, Astrium's head of Missile Defense and NATO Program. The Astrium-Raytheon team will provide sound, innovative, and cost-effective solutions to help develop NATO's future ballistic missile defense capability.