TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has
been awarded $55 million in contracts from the U.S. Navy for production of
Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOW) to replenish systems expended during Operation
Iraqi Freedom.
The contracts call for Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz., to
produce JSOW-As to be delivered by July 2005.
"JSOW performed superbly in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was the weapon of
choice for time-sensitive targets. Rapidly replacing those that were expended
is high priority for the Navy," said Capt. Dave Dunaway, the Naval Air Systems
Command's JSOW program manager.
"We are very pleased to be making a weapon system which is so highly
regarded by the war fighter for its ease of use and capability to do the job,"
said Jon Jones, Raytheon's Strike Weapons vice president. "We have energized
the JSOW team to add this supplemental amount on top of our normal production
runs in order to refill the Navy inventory with this critical weapon as soon
as possible."
JSOW is a joint Navy and Air Force program. It is a family of low-cost,
air-to-ground weapons that employ an integrated Global Positioning
System/Inertial Navigation system that guides the weapon to the target. More
than 400 JSOW-As have been used in combat operations to date.
The JSOW family uses a common and modular weapon body capable of carrying
various payloads. Its long standoff range, greater than 63 nautical miles,
allows delivery from well outside the lethal range of most enemy air defenses.
The AGM-154A (also called JSOW-A) variant dispenses BLU-97 combined-effect
bomblets for use against soft and area targets. It is produced for use on the
F/A-18, F-16, F-15E, B-1, B-2 and B-52 aircraft. The AGM-154C, or JSOW-C,
variant incorporates an imaging infrared seeker for high precision and a
Broach multi-stage warhead which has both a blast-fragmentation and hard
target penetration capability for use against point targets. JSOW-C entered
low-rate initial production in June. It is currently being produced for Navy
F/A-18s and has been selected by Poland for use on its F-16s.
Raytheon Company, with 2002 sales of $16.8 billion, is an industry leader
in defense, government and commercial electronics, space, information
technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft.
With headquarters in Lexington, Mass., Raytheon employs more than 76,000
people worldwide.
Note to editors:
These contracts were originally announced by the Department of Defense on
Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, 2003
Contact:
Jennifer Allen
520.794.4182
Sara Hammond at the Air Force Association show:
520.349.3356
SOURCE Raytheon Company
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Related links:
http://www.raytheon.com
CONTACT:
Jennifer Allen, +1-520-794-4182, or Sara
Hammond, +1-520-349-3356, both of Raytheon Company
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