MCKINNEY, Texas, Feb. 8, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Defense (DoD) has certified that Raytheon Company's Core Framework operating environment is compliant with the government's Software Communications Architecture (SCA). Raytheon is the first company to achieve this milestone. During recent tests of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Cluster 2 hand- held radio, Raytheon's Core Framework enabled the JTRS Cluster 2 radio to be SCA-compliant with waivers. SCA compliance overcomes interoperability barriers that occur when dissimilar military radios communicate with each other. Essentially, a core framework is an operating environment. Raytheon's Core Framework is portable and runs on a variety of hardware platforms, including those that support military radios. Its portability compares with today's commercial applications that function equally well on personal computers or Apple systems. Raytheon's Core Framework now operates in the company's MicroLight™ hand-held, software-defined radio, as well as software radios owned by some of Raytheon's international customers.

Raytheon led an industry consortium that developed the SCA and, in 2000, delivered it to the JTRS Joint Program Office. Since then, DoD has identified processes and tools to measure compliance and now mandates that all communication architectures be SCA-certified, that is, they must meet specific software-defined radio requirements.

"Using Raytheon's Core Framework, the SCA specifications, and commercial tools, radio developers now have a complete design environment," said Jerry Powlen, Raytheon vice president of Integrated Communication Systems. "This gives them greater flexibility and increased cost efficiency."

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2005 sales of $21.9 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.

  Note to editors:
  * In 1999, DoD pioneered the concept of Joint Tactical Radio Systems
    (JTRS), a family of software-programmable military radios based on a
    common digital architecture.  Believing that communications equipment
    built to a common architecture could be upgraded easily, DoD authorized
    the JTRS Joint Program Office to develop a software communications
    architecture (SCA). The JPO envisioned that an SCA would become the
    design standard for future radio production and, in doing so, it would
    usher in a new generation of radios without interoperability barriers.

  * The SCA is a specification document that details rules, methods and
    criteria for the design of software-defined, programmable digital
    radios. Its standards form the basis of DoD's future military radio
    procurement. An international standards body, the Object Management
    Group, is promoting SCA's adoption as a commercial industry standard.
    SCA certification requires validation that a system can meet more than
    250 basic requirements.

  Contact:
  MB Hodgkiss
  508.490.2607

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SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: MB Hodgkiss of Raytheon Company, +1-508-490-2607

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