MCKINNEY, Texas, Sept. 7, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Network Centric Systems (NCS) has named Les Janka vice president, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia NCS operations.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070907/NEF008 )

Janka will be based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and will act as the senior NCS executive in the Kingdom. He will represent NCS on all operational and business development issues in the Kingdom and will be responsible to develop close relationships with the senior leadership of the Saudi customer community, Saudi partners, U.S. Embassy and U.S. military for additional programmatic issues.

"Les Janka brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our international business development efforts," said Jack Costello, NCS vice president for Business Development and Strategic Planning. "Our decision to forward deploy a senior executive abroad underscores the NCS commitment to the international marketplace, and more specifically, to the key growth market of Saudi Arabia."

Prior to joining NCS, Janka distinguished himself as an international affairs expert during a 30-year career as a consultant and multiple assignments in the U.S. government including high-level tours in several administrations on the National Security Council and at the Department of Defense.

In the government, he was the special assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger on the NSC and was a member of President Nixon's delegation to Saudi Arabia in 1974. As deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern, African and South Asian Affairs, he oversaw several major arms sales to Saudi Arabia including that of the F-15. He later served in the White House as special assistant to President Reagan and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs.

In the private sector, Janka led the Middle East and Africa political and trade advisory practice as executive vice president of Neill and Company, one of Washington's premier foreign policy lobbying and public affairs consulting firms. As an independent consultant, he has advised major U.S. and European companies, resulting in sales of their military and commercial applications in Saudi Arabia.

A native of California, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Redlands and his Master of Arts degree in international economics and Middle Eastern studies from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University.

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:
  George Rhynedance
  703.284.4439

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SOURCE: Raytheon Company

CONTACT: George Rhynedance of Raytheon Company, +1-703-284-4439

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