Alcoa reports that its Alcoa Forged Products and Aluminum Castings business has signed a five-year contract with Klune Industriesto manufacture high-strength aluminum structural castings for the U. S. Navy's Tactical Tomahawk missile.

Klune is is an integrated engineering and manufacturing company that supplies finish-machined parts to the Tomahawk program’s prime contractor, Raytheon Corp. The contact is valued at nearly $30 million, Alcoa states, and deliveries are scheduled through 2009.

Joseph Haniford, vice president and general manager of Alcoa Forged Products and Aluminum Casting, called the program “an opportunity to demonstrate the value of the aluminum-investment-casting process for critical defense applications, while also showcasing our ability to provide cost-effective, high-strength missile components in aluminum and titanium."

Haniford said Alcoa is supporting the full-rate production phase of this program with four major structural parts.