TEWKSBURY, Mass., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has achieved a significant milestone with the early delivery of critical vendor furnished information to Northrop Grumman, one of the shipbuilders for the U.S. Navy's Zumwalt Class next generation destroyer (DDG 1000).

This milestone highlights the ongoing success of a new, collaborative design and delivery strategy devised to meet the collective goals of the Zumwalt government-industry team to keep ship construction moving forward on schedule and on budget.

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), the U.S. Navy, and shipbuilders Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics worked together to create a concurrent development plan that will align the delivery of engineering components with the phased construction of the ship. Recognizing the dependencies of system and design interfaces, Raytheon's Zumwalt team modified its engineering development processes and disciplines to enable the incremental exchange of information with the shipbuilder.

"The collaborative development of this new approach is a win for the entire Zumwalt team and a testament to the strength of our partnership," said Raytheon's Ed Geisler, vice president for the Zumwalt program. "Together, we have identified the phased requirements of the ship and its systems and have created a successful model for concurrent engineering and ship design."

Additional efficiencies have also been realized with a dramatically improved process for the sharing of computer aided design information among Zumwalt industry teammates. A team of specialists from Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Bath Iron Works worked together, using Raytheon Six Sigma™ tools and techniques, to develop a solution that translates design data into a format compatible with the shipyards. The group leveraged an existing software tool used in commercial manufacturing to directly translate Raytheon-provided mission systems equipment data into the shipbuilders' computer aided design format.

Under the Navy's Detail Design and Integration contract awarded in 2005, Raytheon IDS serves as the prime mission systems equipment integrator for all electronic and combat systems for the Zumwalt-class destroyer program. Working with the Navy and a team of industry leaders, IDS is leading the effort to transform the Navy's ship requirements to reality.

For more information, visit http://www.raytheon.com/products/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 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:
  Carolyn Beaudry
  401.842.3550

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

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

Web site: http://www.raytheon.com/
http://www.raytheon.com/products/ddg_1000