EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Sept. 19, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The Team JCA partnership of Raytheon and EADS CASA North America has established a public-private partnership agreement with Letterkenny Army Depot in Pennsylvania to work together on a logistics approach to the Joint Cargo Aircraft program.

"Our goal is to provide a comprehensive support solution that meets the needs of both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force for JCA," said Jim Hvizd, Team JCA vice president. "This agreement will allow us to work in partnership to develop logistics approaches to satisfy both mission requirements."

The Joint Cargo Aircraft is a joint Army and Air Force program that will provide ground forces with an intratheater lift capability to haul important cargo and troops to support combat operations. Team JCA is offering the combat-proven C-295 transport aircraft for the JCA requirement. The C-295 is in service with coalition partners around the world and is the only combat-proven and FAA-certified aircraft being offered for the JCA program.

Under the agreement, Team JCA would work with Letterkenny to define the Army's maintenance requirements. "Agreements like this one are beneficial not only to the taxpayer but to the warfighter," said Col. Robert A. Swenson, Letterkenny Army Depot commander. "They identify and build on each partner's strengths, lowering the cost of products and services and improving operational efficiencies. Signing this agreement with Raytheon is consistent with the spirit of the Army's goal to empower and develop partnerships."

The agreement is the first of four that Team JCA expects to sign with the Army and Air Force during the coming weeks.

Team JCA's military aircraft fleet is supported by a worldwide operations and logistics network. Support personnel are stationed at JCA locations in more than 30 countries.

Team JCA's military aircraft has the highest operational availability in its class and provides the lowest cost of ownership. The mission capability rating of the aircraft exceeds the requirement of the program as well as the reliability rating of its competitors. Reliability, availability and maintainability are based on more than 850,000 military mission flight hours.

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:
  Lorenzo Cortes
  310.503.3089

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Lorenzo Cortes of Raytheon Company, +1-310-503-3089

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