Raytheon Co. (RTN), a manufacturer of high-technology defense and commercial electronic systems, said Monday that its Airborne Standoff Radar system, developed for the U.K. Ministry of Defence, entered service with the Royal Air Force.
The in-service date indicated that the system comprises two aircraft, two ground stations and two trained crews capable of supporting a brigade-level deployment. Till date, Raytheon has delivered four aircraft, eight ground stations and full mission support capabilities. The company said that the fifth and final aircraft would be delivered by the end of 2008.
The next stage in the Airborne Standoff Radar system would be the delivery of the system in its entirety to the Royal Air Force and continue supporting the system through life.
Jon Jones, president of Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems business, said, "Now that the ASTOR system has been officially accepted and is in service, we are excited to see how its mission-critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will benefit the men and women on the battlefield."
The airborne element of the system consists of five modified Bombardier Global Express aircraft, also called Sentinel R Mk 1, each of which is equipped with a dual-mode radar. The company said that integrated platform workstations on each aircraft would enable mission management, imagery exploitation, and transmission of the imagery by secure data links to the system's ground stations.
Partners of Raytheon in the development of the system were BAE Systems, Bombardier, CUBIC, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, SELEX and Thales.
RTN ended Friday's regular trading session at $48.80. For the past 52 weeks, the stock has been trading in the range of $41.81 to $67.49.
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