Raytheon's Multi-Sector Oceanic Data Link System at Oakland, California, Achieves Operational Capability.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 15, 1999--

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTNA, RTNB) announced that its Multi-Sector Oceanic Data Link (MS-ODL) system has obtained operational readiness demonstration status from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at the Oakland, Calif., Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC).

After several months of rigorous testing, operational shakedown, and controller training, the Oakland ARTCC declared that the system has achieved full operational capability.

The MS-ODL system provides controller-pilot data link communications to suitably equipped aircraft using digital text messages -- a major breakthrough in communications capability between air traffic controllers and aircraft over vast oceanic regions. Bob Eckel, Raytheon Company's domestic vice president for Air Traffic Control, said, "Communicating via very high frequency or satellite data links with aircraft using digital text messages, as opposed to high frequency radio voice messages, greatly increases the accuracy and efficiency of controller-to-pilot communications, improving both safety and airspace utilization."

The MS-ODL at the Oakland ARTCC controls air traffic for the Central Pacific Oceanic Airspace, which is an area of over 18 million square miles. It stretches westward from Oakland to approximately the halfway point between Guam and the Philippines and spans the southern tip of Alaska to the Line Islands to the south. The Oakland ARTCC is one of three sites nationwide that provides air traffic control services required for all of the FAA's oceanic Flight Information Regions. The other two sites are the New York ARTCC and the Anchorage ARTCC. Raytheon's MS-ODL has already been installed at the New York ARTCC and is expected to achieve initial operational capability by the end of this year and operational readiness demonstration status in mid-2000. The New York ARTCC controls approximately four million square miles of the southern Atlantic Ocean. Raytheon continues to provide support to the FAA for the maintenance and operation of both the Oakland and New York centers.

Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 80 countries around the world.

Note to the editor: For a graphic depicting the Central Pacific Oceanic Airspace mentioned in the article, please contact Blanche Necessary at 703-284-4422.