TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 14, 2004  /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy has given
Raytheon Company's unitary penetration variant of the Joint Standoff Weapon
(JSOW-C) its highest assessment: "suitable and effective."

    The assessment, from the Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force
(COMOPTEVFOR), follows operational testing (OT) firings with 10 of 11
successful shots against a wide range of targets.

    JSOW-C was developed by a team that includes the U.S. Navy, Raytheon
Company, BAE Systems and Thales Missile Electronics.

    "JSOW-C is expected to deploy early in 2005 and will represent a
significant addition to our warfighting capability," said Captain David
Dunaway, the Navy's JSOW program manager.  "We look forward to the fleet
introduction of JSOW unitary."

    JSOW-C incorporates a Raytheon-developed uncooled, long-wave infrared
seeker with automatic target acquisition algorithms, providing the Navy a
launch-and-leave weapon with a long range standoff precision strike
capability.  JSOW-C will be the first U.S. weapon to incorporate the two stage
broach blast fragmentation/penetration warhead, developed by the United
Kingdom's BAE Systems.  Thales provides the fuze.  JSOW-C has a unique
capability for a glide weapon in its ability to attack a hardened target in a
near-horizontal mode.

    OT was conducted primarily at the Naval Air Systems Command's Pacific Land
Range at China Lake, Calif., under fleet Navy and Marine Corps operational
conditions.  COMOPTEVFOR has concluded that JSOW-C is operationally effective
and operationally suitable for fleet use.  The weapon proved extremely
reliable and accurate during OT, with a success rate of 91 percent.

    JSOW-C was tested against a wide array of targets ranging from radar sites
to caves and hardened bunkers including targets where concealment and
deception were used to attempt to deceive the missile.

    "We are very pleased the Navy found JSOW-C to be effective for fleet use,
and we are eager to provide JSOW-C to the Navy for initial deployment," said
Ron Shields, Raytheon's JSOW program director.  "The performance of our weapon
in this evaluation exceeded expectations."

    A full rate production decision is expected in the next few months.  The
first production missiles ordered under a previous low-rate initial production
contract in July 2003 were delivered to the Navy in September 2004.

    JSOW is a joint Navy and Air Force program.  It is a family of low-cost,
highly survivable, air-to-ground weapons employing an integrated Global
Positioning System/Inertial Navigation system that guides the weapon to the
target.  More than 400 JSOW-As have been used in combat operations to date.

    The JSOW family uses a common and modular weapon body capable of carrying
a variety of payloads and handling multiple missions.  Its long demonstrated
standoff range of 63 nautical miles allows delivery from well outside the
lethal range of most enemy air defenses.

    The AGM-154A (also called JSOW-A) variant dispenses BLU-97 combined-effect
bomblets for use against soft and area targets.  It is produced for use on the
F/A-18, F-16, F-15E, B-1, B-2 and B-52 aircraft.  The AGM-154C (JSOW-C) is
currently being produced for Navy F/A-18s and has been selected by Poland for
use on its F-16s.

    The Navy/Raytheon team is developing a Block II configuration of the JSOW
weapon system that provides significant cost reductions to all JSOW versions.
The first Block II configuration weapons will be delivered in 2007.
Additionally, other JSOW improvements are underway to add anti-ship
capability, reduce unexploded ordnance, hit moving targets, provide bomb hit
indication, provide network capability and further reduce cost.

    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:
   Alan D. Fischer
   520.794.1211


SOURCE: Raytheon Company



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