GARLAND, TEXAS - 3 June 2008: Raytheon Australia today announced the opening of its United States Capability Node as an additional means to deliver capability and capacity to its Australian military customers.

The US Capability Node is housed within the Commonwealth Building on Raytheon’s campus at Garland, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. “The Node will strengthen even further Raytheon Australia’s ability to reach back and draw upon the considerable engineering expertise and resources of Raytheon Company,” said Raytheon Australia Managing Director, Ron Fisher.

“In a limited Australian market for sophisticated engineering skills no single location can meet all of the requirements to recruit and support the talent required for complex defence projects. This new capability will provide an even higher level of confidence in Raytheon Australia’s ability to meet its current and future commitments.

“The Garland location was chosen to assist Raytheon Australia’s business objectives and facilitate existing and future program requirements with particular focus on increased efficiency. In particular we will also be able to tap into the highly capable technical resources in Garland at around 30 per cent of the cost of relocating the same labour to a site in Australia, and this will be a real benefit for our Australian customers.

“Further to this, Dallas is readily accessible to travellers from Australia and elsewhere in the United States.

“The node offers other advantages for Raytheon Australia. It will provide a productive and collaborative working environment that can support the development of integrated project teams which can be co-located where necessary. Not only will it offer particular cost efficiencies but it will provide access to a specialist US based capability that may also be used as an additional surge capacity to support Australian programs if required,” Mr Fisher said.

The hub and node approach is not new to Raytheon Australia. The company has utilised a ‘hub and node’ model across a number of its programs to address single location constraints through multi-site collaboration. The Air Warfare Destroyer project is an obvious example where the AWD Systems Centre that is hubbed in Adelaide is supported by a combat system node at Raytheon Australia’s newly opened Engineering Centre of Excellence in Sydney.

The same approach has been adopted for Raytheon Australia’s work on the Collins Replacement Combat System and Hornet Aircrew Training System.

“Raytheon Australia’s success has always been founded on the company’s ability to anticipate and meet customer requirements. This new initiative is all about delivering capability and capacity in a new, innovative way,” Mr Fisher said.

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With facilities located across the country, Raytheon Australia is a highly capable prime contractor with an engineering and technical workforce of 1300 backed by world-class management and quality systems. This local presence is bolstered by strong relationships with small and medium sized enterprises and access to the global resources of Raytheon Company.

Raytheon Company, with 2007 sales of $21.3 billion, is a technology leader specializing in defence, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 86 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 72,000 people worldwide.