AURORA, Colo., July 7  /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company has achieved a
significant program milestone by successfully capturing data from the WindSat
Coriolis weather satellite, making the company's Command, Control, and
Communications Segment's multi-mission network capability one of the first
National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
segments to go operational.

    The multi-mission capability incorporates a new fiber optic network from
Svalbard to Tromso, on the mainland of Norway, to the continental United
States. The network sends data to the Coriolis Data Distribution site in
Suitland, Md., and the data are used to determine global sea surface wind
speed and direction as well as to monitor solar mass ejections from the sun.

    The network provides the NPOESS program with high-speed data transfer, 155
Mbps connectivity, from the Svalbard, Norway, ground station previously
available only through slower, more expensive satellite links, reducing costs
for existing programs and providing additional capacity for future missions
including the NPOESS Preparatory Project. The ground station is so far north
that it can see polar-orbiting satellites on every orbit. This enables it to
capture blind orbits not visible from the primary station at Fairbanks,
Alaska.

    "For the mission to start taking operational passes within 45 days of
getting the green light is exceptional," said Mike Mader, director of the
NPOESS program for Raytheon. "Our team worked closely with the customer to
ensure delivery in a reliable and timely manner."

    The next step for Raytheon's Command, Control, and Communications Segment
is to integrate NASA missions at Svalbard and provide them with the same high-
speed terrestrial data transfer capability used for Coriolis, then to
transition operations to a new antenna in the fall.

    Raytheon is part of the Northrop Grumman Space Technology NPOESS team.
Northrop Grumman Space Technology leads the team as the prime contractor and
has overall responsibility for the program development effort.

    Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2003 sales of $18.1 billion, is an
industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information
technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft.
With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 78,000 people worldwide.


  Contact:
   Darci Bushey
   303.344.6608


SOURCE: Raytheon Company

Web site:  http://www.raytheon.com/