Missile Defense Agency re-ups Raytheon for ballistic missile work

Defense giant Raytheon Co. won a five-year, $49 million follow-on contract from the Missile Defense Agency to provide advanced technologies for ballistic missile defense systems.

Under the contract, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Tewksbury, Mass., will develop advanced technologies and systemwide architectures for Project Hercules to improve the capabilities of the Ballistic Missile Defense System and will produce prototypes of the technologies for fielded systems.

Raytheon has been one of the prime contractors on Project Hercules since 2003. The program is a national effort to develop advanced algorithms, or complex mathematical instructions, to improve the performance of ballistic missile defense systems and to address sophisticated missile threats.

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems furnishes algorithm development and engineering expertise in differentiating and tracking threats as well as architectures using infrared, radar and electro-optical sensor data for distinguishing threats.

Raytheon of Waltham, Mass., has 80,000 employees and had annual revenue of $21.9 billion in fiscal 2005. The company ranks No. 7 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.