MCKINNEY, Texas, Aug. 15, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- Following on the heels of a recent June 2006 communications breakthrough, Raytheon Company has achieved another important milestone in troposcatter (TROPO) solutions. Besting its own industry-first 20 megabytes per second (MBps) Ku band TROPO or "over the horizon" communications link, Raytheon successfully demonstrated a 40 MBps link.

This milestone significantly exceeds current TROPO bandwidth rates that today are in the range of 16 MBps. Increased bandwidth enables soldiers to transmit and receive greater amounts of video and voice data information more quickly.

TROPO is the ability to transmit radio waves over the curvature of the Earth, without using satellites, by bouncing signals off irregularities (small changes in humidity, temperature and pressure) in the troposphere, approximately 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. The U.S. military currently employs TROPO systems for tactical and strategic communications throughout the world.

"Improved TROPO solutions provide our warfighters with access to information without reliance on already overburdened satellites," said Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems' Integrated Communications Systems.

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.

  Contact:
  MB Hodgkiss
  508.490.2607

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

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

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