Playing defense
The fifth-biggest defense contractor in the United States after BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, Raytheon churns out electronics and weapons systems with heavy emphasis on IT. Given that, Raytheon has morphed into an electronics-focused defense contractor. The firm’s six business segments are all concerned with blending cutting-edge IT solutions and defense systems. Tewksbury, Mass.-headquartered Integrated Defense Systems make various kinds of networks that defend against missiles often through the use of radar, sonar and electronics. Intelligence and Information Systems, based in Garland, Texas, provides IT programs for a variety of customers. In nearby McKinney, Texas, Network Centric Systems makes surveillance, communications, command control options and the like mostly to various branches of the U.S. government. Space and Airborne Systems, located in El Segundo, Calif., leads the defense industry in high-tech military services like lasers, precision guidance and electronic warfare devices. The Reston, Va.-based Technical Services is an electronics engineering unit, mostly serving government clients. Finally, the Missile Systems unit based in Tucson, Ariz. is fairly self-explanatory, boasting projectile weapons like the Hawk, Tomahawk and Patriot. Although the company operates worldwide (even managing the U.S. government’s science stations in Antarctica), the U.S. government, mainly the Department of Defense, accounts for about 86 percent of the company’s revenue.
