CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 15, 2009 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon BBN Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), has been awarded an $81 million contract by the Army Research Laboratory to create a collaborative technology alliance in network science.

Under the five-year contract, Raytheon BBN Technologies will pursue fundamental research in network science to identify the commonalities that apply to diverse kinds of networks. Called the ARL Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance, the consortium will examine communication, information, and social and cognitive networks and will include leading researchers from all of these disciplines.

Raytheon BBN Technologies will lead the technology consortium, which will include more than 30 university and industrial labs, from an Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC) to be established at the Raytheon BBN Technologies headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Many researchers from across the consortium will use the facility as their base, while other members will continue to work from their home campuses.

In addition to conducting pure research in network science, the IRC will be responsible for transitioning new technologies to the Department of Defense.

"This contract award reinforces our leadership in networking research," said Tad Elmer, president, Raytheon BBN Technologies. "Our team is determined to develop the underlying technologies that will make networks more flexible, adaptable and secure."

Raytheon BBN Technologies is a research and development organization with expertise spanning information security, speech and language processing, networking, distributed systems, and sensing and control systems. For more information, visit www.bbn.com.

Raytheon Company, with 2008 sales of $23.2 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 87 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 73,000 people worldwide.

    Joyce Kuzmin                              Mark Gauthier
    Raytheon BBN Technologies                 Raytheon BBN Technologies
    617.872.3389                              978.325.7048
    jkuzmin@bbn.com                           mgauthier@bbn.com

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

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

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