TEWKSBURY, Mass., Oct. 17, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Project ATHENA has been awarded a $1.1 million cost plus fixed fee contract modification from the U.S. Department of Defense's Counter- Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office to further demonstrate the maritime domain awareness system's capability to provide wide-area surveillance for coastal and national defense.

Project ATHENA is a joint battlespace information infrastructure that enables the integration of a wide range of information and data provided by a variety of sensors and information sources. It provides a common operating picture of real-time events, which enables responders to quickly discern information and respond to threats arising from the maritime environment.

"Project ATHENA's ability to rapidly integrate new technologies and capabilities allows us to adapt to emerging requirements for maritime domain awareness," said Scott Spence, director of Maritime Domain Awareness Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). "Utilizing the Maritime Domain Awareness Fusion Center test bed and a spiral development philosophy, we're able to work with our government partners to field capabilities quickly to enable detection of emerging threats. Project ATHENA provides this country's defenders the reliable understanding of the maritime environment to confidently develop and discern actionable intelligence required to rapidly respond to emerging threats in defense of our homeland."

During the next six months, Project ATHENA will complete Spiral 3 development, which includes the integration of other sensors and information sources, a refinement of anomaly detection and response capabilities, and further integration with other existing command, control, communications, and computers nodes. The contract modification calls for Raytheon IDS team members from its Joint Battlespace Integration Business Area to demonstrate the system capabilities and core services using the Maritime Domain Awareness Fusion Center at Raytheon IDS's Naval Integration Center in Portsmouth, R.I.

This award follows a successful functionality demonstration test conducted during an operational field demonstration of the ATHENA capabilities for maritime border security in western New York. The 45-day field demonstration evaluated operator requirements, surveillance doctrines, and fusion center services in the Lake Ontario region near Buffalo, N.Y.

Raytheon IDS serves as the global mission systems integrator for Project ATHENA, working closely with other industry partners as well as homeland security and defense agencies to provide national maritime domain awareness at minimum cost to enable effective understanding of anything in the maritime environment that could adversely affect America's security, safety, economy or environment.

Based in Tewksbury, Mass., Integrated Defense Systems is Raytheon's leader in joint battlespace integration. With a strong international and domestic customer base, including the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. armed forces, Integrated Defense Systems provides a wide spectrum of integrated air and missile defense and naval and maritime warfighting solutions.

Raytheon Company, 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:
   Guy Shields
   978.858.5246

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Guy Shields of Raytheon Company, +1-978-858-5246

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