Raytheon Co. – the fourth-largest U.S.
defense contractor, which has a facility in Portsmouth – got three U.S. Army orders valued at more than
$165 million to more than double production of thermal weapon
sights for use by troops in the Middle East.
The Army asked Raytheon to raise monthly output of the sights
to more than 1,000 units from 400, and to deliver 9,956 of the
systems, which use infrared technology to let soldiers see at night
or through fog, smoke, dust and sandstorms, the Waltham,
Mass.-based company said in a statement.
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The U.S. plans to keep at least 138,000 troops in Iraq through
2005, and will shift as many as 3,600 soldiers into the area from
South Korea by August, the U.S. Defense Department said this week.
That’s more than the original plan for a force of between 105,000
and 115,000 troops as insurgents increase their attacks prior to
the planned turnover of political power to an interim Iraqi
government on June 30.
“This ramp-up in output is largely in anticipation of the
need to equip troops rotating into Iraq,” Raytheon spokeswoman
Patricia Perlini said in a telephone interview.
The thermal sights, which are made in Dallas, can be attached
to the M16 and M4 rifles carried by most U.S. troops, or heavy
machine guns such as the Browning M2, which is carried on armored
vehicles like Humvees.
“Thermal weapon sights are being fielded as quickly as they
are delivered to support the needs of U.S. forces,” Col. John
Norwood, U.S. Army program manager for soldier equipment, said in a
statement.
Raytheon will spend less than $8 million to expand production
at the Dallas plant, and no jobs will be added as a result of the
accelerated output, said Edith Lincoln, Raytheon’s director of the
thermal weapon sight program. The latest orders bring Raytheon’s
total sales for the sights to $500 million since they were
introduced in 1998, she said in a phone interview.
Raytheon shares have risen 9.8 percent so far this
year.
