TEWKSBURY, Mass., Feb. 13, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) has been awarded $41.4 million to provide the initial planning and acquisition of electronic systems onboard LPD 25, the ninth ship in the LPD 17 class.

The LPD 17 class of the U.S. Navy's amphibious ships is designed as an expeditionary warfare support platform and serves as an operations base for elements of the Marine expeditionary forces, including troops, helicopters, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, advanced amphibious assault vehicles, air-cushioned landing craft, and support equipment.

This award by Northrop Grumman, the LPD 25 ship builder, is an option from an existing subcontract that was awarded to Raytheon in June 2006.

"This latest option enhances Raytheon's ability to execute the planning and delivery of multiple ship systems, enabling Raytheon to continue to provide reliable solutions for the LPD 17 class of ships," said Dan Martin, vice president of Maritime Mission Systems at IDS. "Raytheon is proud to partner with Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy to produce comprehensive capabilities that effectively meet the needs of today's warfighters."

Raytheon's shipboard electronics suite of equipment provides fully integrated ship systems capabilities to the LPD 17 family of ships. Under this option, Raytheon will perform up-front system design, hardware and software development, engineering, and test and evaluation to support total ship electronics systems integration. Raytheon is also the prime contractor for life-cycle engineering and support of Raytheon-designed and developed equipment for the LPD 17 class of ships. LPD 25 will include Raytheon's Ship Self Defense System Mk 2 open architecture combat management system, which incorporates total ship computing engineering infrastructure developed for DDG 1000.

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 2006 sales of $20.3 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 more than 80,000 people worldwide.

   Contact:
   Carolyn Beaudry
   401.842.3550

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Carolyn Beaudry of Raytheon Company, +1-401-842-3550

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