EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 27, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- The Team JCA partnership led by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and EADS CASA North America is contesting the Joint Cargo Aircraft selection process in a protest filed June 22 with the Government Accountability Office.

"Following a 'debrief' from the U.S. Army, Team JCA carefully considered the Army's selection process and weighed the merits and challenges of an award protest," said Jon Jones, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "We decided that a protest was necessary based on crucial portions of our proposal that were either incorrectly measured or not considered during the source selection process.

"We took this action to understand what it takes to meet the needs of our customer and to better support our nation's warfighters," Jones said.

Team JCA is offering the EADS CASA C-295 military transport for the JCA requirement. The protest centers on three key points:

  -- The JCA source selection board rated Team JCA equal to its competitor
     on all non-price factors in its criteria, including technical,
     logistics, management/production and past performance.
  -- Raytheon beat its competitor's price by more than 15 percent
  -- There were errors in the specific evaluation of data and the
     application of the evaluation criteria

"By the best value criteria in the JCA request for proposals, we are convinced that Raytheon has the best value solution," Jones said.

In military service with coalition partners worldwide, the C-295 is completing its seventh year of JCA-type missions with the armed services of Spain, Poland, Algeria, Jordan, Brazil, Portugal and Finland. EADS CASA has 55 aircraft on order, 32 of which have already been delivered.

Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 85 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 73,000 people worldwide.

  Contact:
  Lorenzo Cortes
  310.503.3089 (mobile)
  Lorenzo_R_Cortes@raytheon.com

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: Lorenzo Cortes of Raytheon Company, +1-310-503-3089 (mobile),
Lorenzo_R_Cortes@raytheon.com

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