CANBERRA – 19 June 2008: Raytheon Australia today announced the successful completion of Command and Control (C2) integration testing for the AS-9 “Aussie Thunder” self-propelled howitzer (SPH), the joint Raytheon Australia / Samsung Techwin solution for the Australian Army’s LAND 17 Artillery Replacement Program.

Testing against some elements of the Battle Management System – Fires (BMS-F) requirements of the Commonwealth’s demanding Functional and Performance Specification at Changwon in South Korea, the Raytheon Team demonstrated end-to-end compliance for a number of mission threads across all elements of the C2 System, including Raytheon’s proven Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) - BMS-F (C2), the on-board Aselsan Weapon Management System - BMS-F (FCS) and the Rockwell Collins Forward Observer tool kit - BMS-F (FO).

The integration testing was undertaken through an international effort involving engineers from Raytheon Australia, Raytheon Network Centric Systems, Samsung Techwin, Aselsan and Rockwell Collins. The testing covered all phases of the firing cycle across all mission types using standard mission threats and K messaging format.

“The tests demonstrate that the AS-9 is fully interoperable with Australia’s future C2 environment and coalition partners,” said Raytheon Australia’s Managing Director, Ron Fisher.

“AFATDS has been pre-selected as the BMS-F by the Commonwealth, so we committed to this early investment to prove that we could integrate all elements of the C2 architecture—we’re not aware of any other platform that can make that claim.”

“AS-9 is essentially a Military Off-The-Shelf solution with improved protection from mine blast and improvised explosive devices, so we were keen to show that the integration risk was also low from a C2 perspective,” said Mr Fisher. “It’s fair to say that we’ve achieved that goal.”

He said the focus now is on developing further Australian industry partnerships to support the AS-9 platform in Australia and potentially overseas.

“The production engineering plan is fully developed and C2 integration has now been demonstrated,” he explained.

“We’re now looking at finding additional workshare for Australian industry to support the platform throughout its lifeof-type in Australia and in any export markets that we might develop with Samsung Techwin.”

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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 defense, 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.