WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy said on ‌Monday that it had awarded ‌RTX Unit Raytheon a $22.9 billion contract ​to boost the output of Tomahawk missiles.

The U.S. has supplied large amounts of arms ‌to allies ⁠while also using munitions in the Iran conflict, ⁠raising concerns about inventories of air defense and precision-guided weapons.

“By ​working closely ​with ​industry to expand ‌the capacity of our munitions industrial base, the Department is utilizing every available tool to meet the demands of current ‌operations,” Acting Secretary of ​the Navy Hung ​Cao ​said in a statement.

He ‌did not give ​details of ​how much Tomahawk production would increase by or the ​length ‌of the contract.

(Reporting by Mike ​Stone and David Ljunggren;Editing ​by Katharine Jackson)