TEWKSBURY, Mass., Jan. 29, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar built by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) performed successfully in a flight test conducted by the Missile Defense Agency at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, Jan. 26.

The test resulted in the successful intercept of a unitary target over the Pacific Ocean and demonstrated fully integrated radar, launcher, fire control, missile and engagement functions of the THAAD weapon system.

"Once again, the THAAD system has achieved excellent results, and Raytheon's THAAD components performed exceptionally," said Pete Franklin, vice president of the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems Missile Defense Business Area. "With each successful test, we're moving one step closer to getting this critical system into the hands of our warfighters and providing our country with an effective terminal missile defense capability."

The THAAD radar, developed by Raytheon IDS, achieved all test objectives: acquiring the target, discriminating the lethal object from other debris, providing track and discrimination data to the fire control and communicating with the in-flight THAAD interceptor. The fire control software, jointly developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, also performed successfully, engaging the target and initializing the launch sequence. Lockheed Martin is the THAAD prime contractor and system integrator.

Raytheon's THAAD radar is a phased array, capable of search, threat detection, classification, discrimination and precision tracking at extremely long ranges. THAAD is a key element of the Missile Defense Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System, providing to any combatant commander deployable ground-based missile defense components that deepen, extend and complement the system to defeat ballistic missiles of short to intermediate range. THAAD's combination of high-altitude, long-range capability and hit-to-kill lethality enables it to effectively negate the effects of weapons of mass destruction over a wide area.

Integrated Defense Systems is Raytheon's leader in Joint Battlespace Integration providing affordable, integrated solutions to a broad international and domestic customer base, including the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Homeland Security.

Raytheon Company, 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:
  Joyce Melikian
  339.645.6967

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Joyce Melikian, +1-339-645-6967, for Raytheon Company

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