Defense contractor and electronics heavyweight extraordinaire Raytheon will build a new manufacturing and testing plant in Alabama. A project of the missile division of Raytheon will occupy the building. Raytheon Missile Systems has been a mainstay in Tucson, Arizona for half a century. The Tucson location won’t be closing. Raytheon is one of the world’s largest defense contractors, and has regularly led the way in other fields, especially in electronic technology.
A new shop in Tucson just was not happening
From an article in Business Week, Raytheon needed a new facility to design, build, and test a new ship defense system and a ship borne interceptor missile. (It would blow up incoming missiles.) A new state-of-the-art facility wouldn’t be feasible in Tucson because of zoning, schedule and other requirements that weren’t able to be met. They picked Huntsville, Ala., from a small list of cities. The groundbreaking and construction will start soon for the $ 75 million, 70,000 square foot building. That’s bound to have some fairly high mortgage payments.
The laser like focus of Raytheon
The Star Wars project made Ronald Reagan a laughingstock, but Raytheon is making laser weapons work. The company is working on a laser defense system that can take down Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) with impunity, and perhaps eventually aircraft. The laser was tested , as outlined by CNET, and the laser shot 4 UAV drones right down. The beam causes the target to burst into flames and fall apart.
A strong legacy
Raytheon has a long history of being on the cutting edge of engineering, aside from just defense projects. Before the company adopted the name Raytheon, the business invented a gas filled vacuum tube that allowed radios to run off AC current from the wall instead of needing a battery. ( individuals who rant and rave about how great tube sound is.) Raytheon also invented radar for naval vessels and the microwave oven.
Read more on this topic here
news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10004204.html?tag=mncol
businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9H3GKRO0.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon
