SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- A Thales Raytheon Systems radar
will help protect the airspace against low flying aircraft that might prove to
threaten the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb. 8-24, 2002.
Originally developed by Raytheon Company and officially known as the AN/MPQ-
64, the Sentinel is a three-dimensional radar used to automatically detect,
track, classify, identify and report airborne targets. It is currently
operational with U.S. Army active and reserve forces.
Concerned about possible terrorist threats from the air during the
Olympics, the U.S. Customs Service and the Department of Defense (DoD) devised
a plan to provide threat protection using a combination of FAA and DoD radars.
FAA radars will cover high-flying aircraft out to an 80-mile radius around
Salt Lake City. Sentinel radars will be used against potential low-flying
aircraft targets.
This is the second time Sentinel has been called upon to support the
Olympics. During the 1996 Summer Olympics, Sentinel detected 48 aircraft
penetrating restricted airspace.
"The last time we were at the Olympics, it was during a time of relative
stability," said Dr. Jim Beck, senior vice president Radar Products of Thales
Raytheon Systems. "We are proud that Sentinel has been selected to protect
the air space over Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics."
Thales Raytheon Systems is an equally owned Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN)
and Thales (Paris: TCFP.PA and London: THS) transatlantic joint venture
encompassing air defense/command and control centers and ground-based air
surveillance and weapons locating radars. The enterprise, which began
operations in June 2001, has operating subsidiaries in Fullerton, Calif., and
in the greater Paris metropolitan area. It has about 1,300 employees worldwide
and predicted sales for 2001 of 650m euros/$600m U.S.
Contact:
James van der Naald
310-804-1482
SOURCE Raytheon Company
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Related links:
http://www.raytheon.com
CONTACT:
James van der Naald of Raytheon,
+1-310-804-1482
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