ANDOVER — Local military contractor Raytheon Corp. has won a $3.3 billion contract to sell Patriot missiles to the United Arab Emirates, meaning the company's Lowell Street facility will be hiring to fill the order.

Over the past year, the company has added 200 new employees to the Integrated Defense Systems facility in anticipation of winning the contract, said Media Relations Director Jon Kasle. He said he expects the company will hire more in the coming year.

"I can't say how many more, but we plan to add jobs, principally in Andover," he said, noting that many of the positions will be union electrician and machinist jobs.

The sale of the Patriot missiles is the latest in a series of victories for the company, including a $77 million contract earlier this month with the U.S. Army to upgrade existing Patriot missiles and a $16 million radar contract with Romania.

In 2007-2008, the company announced $1.64 billion in Patriot missile contracts, including a deal with the Homeland Security Department to detect radiological threats.

Patriot missiles are ground-based systems used primarily to shoot down incoming missiles or airplanes.

The contract with United Arab Emirates — the largest individual contract the company has landed in at least three years — is for the sale of the most advanced system to date, known as the Pac-3 system, Kasle said.

While Raytheon will build the Patriot missiles at the Andover complex, it also will have a long-term servicing and maintenance contract with the United Arab Emirates, Kasle said.

The company doesn't actually sell the Patriot missiles to foreign countries. Instead, the missile system is sold to the United States government, which then sells it to another country, Kasle said. All sales to foreign military require congressional approval.

The United Arab Emirates has long been a customer of Raytheon's, selling medium-range Hawk missiles to the Middle Eastern country since the mid-1980s.

Patriot systems also are sold to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as countries in Europe and Asia.

"Patriot's advanced technology provides significant benefits in system capability, reliability, sustainability and affordability to U.S. and allied forces around the world," said Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems President Daniel Smith. "With this order, the UAE joins 11 other countries that rely upon Patriot to provide a key element of their national defense."

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