TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 22, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Defense in November presented Raytheon Company's Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) program with its highest acquisition honor, the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award. The Packard award is given to civilian and military organizations that have made highly significant contributions or demonstrated exemplary innovations and best practices in the defense acquisition process.

The JSOW Block II program, based at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz., has seen the company and customer work closely together to reduce unit costs while expanding capabilities of the JSOW family of precision low-cost standoff unpowered air-to-ground weapons.

Raytheon is under contract with U.S. Naval Air Systems Command and expects to complete development of the JSOW Block II in 2006. Block II is planned to reduce JSOW unit cost by 25 percent or more, saving the Navy $133.5 million in the future year's defense program and an additional $421 million over the life of the program. Costs are cut by reducing the parts count and improving the manufacturing process, an example of Raytheon's company-wide quality efforts to make operations leaner while providing superior products to customers.

"We are saving dollars that are immediately reinvested back in the naval aviation enterprise to improve inventory and capability for the warfighter," said Capt. Dave Dunaway, program manager of the Navy's Precision Strike Weapons office. "I am impressed with this team and its level of dedication."

Beginning in fiscal year 2006, JSOW precision glide weapons will be manufactured in the Block II configuration. Block II will maintain all standoff and survivability capability of the current JSOW and will include an improved anti-jam Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. The Raptor GPS system is an advanced navigator developed by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems and is planned for use in other Raytheon products.

Development of a new payload option for the JSOW-A should be complete in 2006. This new version will use a unitary 500-pound BLU-111 (MK-82) warhead and is designated the AGM-154A-1. This unitary variant will eliminate the unexploded ordnance concerns of cluster munitions while maintaining or increasing effectiveness against a broad target set. It is primarily intended for the international market.

"We are working with the Navy to make JSOW the most cost-effective standoff weapon available for our warfighters," said Ron Shields, Raytheon's JSOW program director. "We are also developing JSOW moving target capability for land and sea targets."

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:

JSOW is a joint Navy and Air Force program. It is a family of low-cost, air-to-ground weapons that employ an integrated Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation system that guides the weapon to the target. The JSOW uses a common and modular weapon body capable of carrying various payloads. Its long standoff range, greater than 70 nautical miles (maximum kinematic performance), 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, or JSOW-C, variant incorporates an imaging infrared seeker for high precision and a Broach multi-stage warhead, which has both a blast- fragmentation and hard target penetration capability for use against point targets. JSOW-C is in full rate production and achieved initial operation capability in February 2005 with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It is currently being produced for Navy F/A-18s and has been selected by Poland and Turkey for use on their F-16s.

  More than 400 JSOW-As have been used in combat operations to date.

  Contact:
   Sara Hammond
   520.794.7810

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SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Sara Hammond of Raytheon, +1-520-794-7810

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