Raytheon ("light of the gods") took a shine to its place in the upper pantheon of US military contractors; the company regularly places among the Pentagon's top 10 prime contractors. Its air/land/sea/space/cyber defense offerings include reconnaissance, targeting, and navigation systems, as well as missile systems (Patriot, Sidewinder, and Tomahawk), – more... unmanned ground and aerial systems, sensing, and radars. Additionally, Raytheon makes systems for communications (satellite) and intelligence, radios, cybersecurity, and air traffic control. It also offers commercial electronics products and services, as well as food safety processing technologies. The US government accounts for about 75% of sales.

While it counts among its customers the US Department of Defense (DoD), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and NASA, as well as members of the US military and US intelligence communities, Raytheon also has some key international customers. The company has contracts with South Korea to provide air and missile defense systems, with Japan for training, Saudi Arabia for surveillance systems, and Australia for joint standoff weapons. Other main global clients include Finland, Germany, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. The company is gaining a greater presence in the India market, having provided air traffic systems to the country, as well as infrared imaging sights and electronics for T-72 tanks. Raytheon's international customers generate around 25% of its revenues, and the company is setting its sights on increasing that percentage.

To support its customers worldwide, Raytheon serves defense and intelligence markets via six business segments: Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS), Missile Systems (MS), Network Centric Systems (NCS), and Space and Airborne Systems (SAS). Its Technical Services (TS) division offers training, engineering- and depot-support, logistics, and other business services.

Most of Raytheon's business segments have maintained steady revenue levels in recent years; however, at the end of 2011, the company's IDS, NCS, and TS segments each experienced slight declines. Raytheon's business is contingent, to a great extent, on the federal defense budget. With the US budget deficit hitting an all-time high in recent years, the present administration is struggling to prioritize among such spending initiatives as defense, homeland security, health care reform, and alternative energy development. 

Previously, defense spending shifted from combat warfare equipment toward unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), advanced sensors, and other high-tech systems that supported ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq (i.e., equipment that increased the military's speed, flexibility, and precision). However, total military spending for Afghanistan and Iraq is expected to decline as soldiers continue to be redeployed out of these countries. Fortunately, Raytheon's diverse product lineup is in a better position to weather budget cuts than some of its competitors that handle a limited number of defense products and services. The company's offerings run the gamut from kill vehicles (ballistic missile interceptors) to pasteurization technology and GPS satellites.

Having patented the first microwave more than 65 years ago, Raytheon is still developing and designing futuristic realities. The product that stands out most in the company's portfolio is the missile, however. As the world's #1 missile maker, Raytheon is a key player in US efforts to construct a comprehensive missile defense system. Such systems need intercept vehicles, sensors, command and control systems, and systems integration expertise. Raytheon's precision engagement offerings include the company's missiles, as well as radars, data links, targeting and warning systems, and lasers. In spring 2010 the company released an air and missile defense systems product line, which includes the Standard Missile-3, the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), and branded development programs.

Building on its MS segment, Raytheon in mid-2011 acquired certain key businesses of New Mexico-based Ktech, which has strong ties to the US Air Force Research Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Ktech specializes in high power microwave and explosive pulsed power systems engineering, which is used to integrate directed energy weapons on combat platforms. Ktech's offerings complement Raytheon's directed energy technologies.

Raytheon's IIS unit uses sensing, processing, and dissemination technologies to obtain actionable information and get it from one place to another quickly. Raytheon's products in this area include sensor suites for UAVs, space-based radars, satellite systems, and communications systems. As for homeland security, the systems Raytheon makes for traditional defense applications are readily transferable to civilian applications.

The company's cybersecurity business has been getting a lot of attention of late, primarily through multiple acquisitions, which reflect Raytheon's general strategy for building its operations and growing its customer base. In December 2011, Raytheon acquired Henggeler Computer Consultants, a provider of enterprise architecture, analytics, software, and cloud-based products for intelligence operations, and Pikewerks Corporation, which provides analysis, investigation, and forensics services, as well as software protection. Three other purchases (totaling $152 million) were made in 2010. They included Trusted Computer Solutions, Technology Associates, and mostly all of the assets of Australia-based Compucat Research.

Using the same acquisition strategy for its SAS market, the company completed a deal in early 2011 to acquire Applied Signal Technology, a specialist in communications- and signal-related products and services. The approximate $490 million purchase obtained additional capacity in collecting and processing communications signals imperative to strategic and tactical intelligence missions. Raytheon develops avionics systems, electronic warfare technologies, and fire control radars within its SAS segment. The company designs and manufactures sensor payload for national programs used in defense and commercial space applications. – less