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Perhaps more than any other arms merchant, today's Raytheon is a creation of the Gulf War. During U.S. v. Saddam round one, everyone suddenly wanted Raytheon's Patriot missile-defense system -- even though the Pentagon, during the war, vastly overstated the Patriot's effectiveness. When the Gulf War broke out, Raytheon was already one of the 10 most powerful arms makers in the world, ranking sixth in the U.S. (its 1996 sales were $4 billion). But a spate of acquisitions in 1996-7 built the company into a global force -- becoming one of the three largest U.S. arms makers and unusually well positioned to survive the ongoing defense industry shakeout. Raytheon's acquisitions included Chrysler Technologies (and its tank business) for $455 million in June 1996, the $2.95 billion purchase of Texas Instruments' military electronics unit in January 1997, and a staggering $9.5 billion to buy General Motors' Hughes Aircraft division that same month. Naturally, cost savings -- layoffs -- have followed. The new Raytheon, which generated annual sales of $13.7 billion in 1997, plans to cut as much as 8 percent of its 120,000-member workforce in 1999. As noted, Raytheon's sales are just fine. With its expanded portfolio, the company now participates in an amazing variety of military-export businesses. (Click here for a more complete inventory of products and sales since 1994.) Raytheon gave some $335,000 to Republicans and Democrats in the first 18 months of this election cycle, from January 1997 to June 1998; both Raytheon and Hughes Aircraft executives were among Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's welcome guests on a summer 1994 junket to the newly accessible South American market. -- Geov Parrish
In addition to the Patriot, the roster of products and sales since 1994 includes: AIM-7E Sea Sparrow missiles (Turkey); AIM-7M Sparrow air-to-air missiles (Egypt, Singapore); AIM-9M/P Sidewinder missiles (Egypt, Singapore, Turkey, Oman); AIM-120/B AMRAAMs (advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles) (Greece, South Korea, Turkey); AN/ALQ-165 Airborne Self- Protection Jammer (South Korea); AN/ALQ-184 ECM pods (Taiwan); AN/TPQ-32 radar sets (Morocco); AN/TPQ-36(V)9 Firefinder radar sets (Kuwait, Turkey); AN/TPQ-37(V)3 Firefinder counter battery radars: (Greece, Israel, South Korea); AN/TSQ-73 Hawk anti-aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers (Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey); Hughes/Rockwell Hellfire antitank missiles (Kuwait); MK-48 vertical-launch systems (South Korea); Phalanx close-in weapons systems (Greece, Israel, Taiwan); RIM-7M Sea Sparrow missiles (Brunei, South Korea, United Arab Emirates); SM-1 block VIB Standard medium-range missiles (Taiwan, Turkey); Stinger-RMP anti-aircraft missiles (Egypt, South Korea, Taiwan); TOW II antitank missile launchers (Egypt, Taiwan); TOW2A antitank missiles (Egypt, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan); and TOW-2A/B antitank missiles (Israel, Kuwait). | | |||||||||||||
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