Raytheon Awarded Contract for AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar

Released on Tuesday, March 18, 2008

TEWKSBURY, Mass., March 18, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has received two U.S. Navy contracts with a total value of $89 million for the AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar system, the primary undersea warfare sensor for the U.S. Navy's MH-60R multi-mission helicopter.

"These contracts continue Raytheon's long history of producing innovative, reliable and affordable undersea warfare systems," said Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems' Charles "Tom" Bush, vice president of Seapower Capability Systems.

AN/AQS-22 provides critical undersea warfare mission support capabilities, including submarine detection, tracking, localization, classification, acoustic intercept, underwater communication and environmental data collection.

Raytheon will provide whole-life engineering to support AN/AQS-22 systems already in the fleet, enhancing operational readiness. Full rate production of AN/AQS-22 has been accelerated since the initial fielding of the MH-60R helicopter into the U.S. Navy fleet in 2006. To date, Raytheon has delivered 14 AN/AQS-22 systems and is under contract for an additional 28.

Work will be performed at Raytheon's Seapower Capability Center, Portsmouth, R.I., and by AN/AQS-22 partners DRS Sonar Systems, Gaithersburg, Md., and Thales Underwater Systems, Brest, France. Work is expected to be completed by 2010.