Raytheon snares U.K. border security deal

Raytheon Co. won a competition for a border security contract from the United Kingdom's Home Office that may be worth as much as $1 billion.

The contract award for the e-Borders security project was reported today by two British media outlets. Raytheon declined to confirm the award.

The Raytheon team, which includes Accenture Ltd., was named preferred bidder, beating out a bid from a team composed of BT Group plc and Lockheed Martin Corp., according to reports in the Guardian Unlimited and Computing magazine.

Neither Raytheon nor the Home Office has officially confirmed the reports. Home Office officials did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for confirmation, and Raytheon spokeswoman Anne Marie Squeo said today the company is not commenting at this time.

Under the e-Borders initiative, the winning contractor will create networks to link airports and other ports to a central information technology infrastructure. The airlines and transportation operators will collect information on passengers that will be distributed on the networks.

The Home Office identified the Raytheon and BT teams as the final bidders for the E-Borders contract a year ago, and said it would award the work in mid-2007.

According to the Home Office, the Raytheon team includes Accenture LLC, Detica Group plc, Serco Group plc, QinetiQ Group PLC, Steria plc and Cap Gemini Group. The BT team includes Lockheed Martin, LogicaCMG, Hewlett-Packard Co., ARINC Inc. and Anite Telecoms Inc.

Raytheon of Waltham, Mass., ranks No. 6 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.