TUCSON, Ariz., April 5, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company celebrated the delivery of the 1,000th AIM-9X to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force March 29. The event highlighted a production milestone to provide warfighters with unprecedented capability and air dominance in the battlespace.

"I am extremely proud of the AIM-9X team's accomplishments in the production and delivery of 1,000 AIM-9X next generation Sidewinder Missiles to the U.S. warfighter," said Capt. Scott Stewart, the Navy's program manager for Air-to-Air Missiles. "The ingenuity, dedication and expertise of this team has maintained and preserved the Sidewinder as the most formidable and lethal short range missile in the world today. Their passionate patriotism, total commitment to the warfighter, high standards of quality and staunch blue- collar work ethic are the hallmarks of a team that delivers on its promises."

"AIM-9X changes the rules of the dogfight through an advanced system design approach that matches software and computer processing capability," said Brock McCaman, Raytheon vice president of Air-to-Air. "The milestone we commemorate is part of the long tradition of innovation in the Sidewinder family of missiles and is the result of a partnership built on a shared mission of performance excellence."

The AIM-9X is a joint U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force program and is the newest member of the AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range missile family in use by more than 40 nations. It incorporates a fifth-generation staring focal plane array seeker for robust guidance performance and infrared countermeasures capability and jet vane control for extremely agile turning performance.

The AIM-9X's seeker has near instantaneous slew rates, and achieves extremely high off-boresight angles for threat acquisition and first shot opportunity in high clutter and infrared countermeasures environments and extreme agility for "first shot, first kill" dogfight air dominance. Pilots are no longer required to point the aircraft's nose at the target to employ this advanced weapon system.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2004 sales of $20.2 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 80,000 people worldwide.

  Contact:
   Karen Rice
   520.794.9494

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

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