Raytheon Company
Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Raytheon Company unveiled the 150th RAM Guided Missile Launching System * (GMLS) currently being built at its Louisville plant 29 July 2004. RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile) is part of Raytheon's world-class ship self-defense suite, which includes the Phalanx Block 1B Close-in Weapon System, the SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system and the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile.

RAM is a supersonic, lightweight, quick reaction, fire-and-forget missile designed to destroy anti-ship missiles. Its autonomous dual-mode passive radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) guidance design provides a high firepower capability for engaging multiple threats simultaneously. Produced in partnership by Raytheon and RAMSYS of Germany, RAM GMLS is aboard more than 60 ships in the navies of the United States, Germany, Greece and Korea.

"RAM is the result of a truly international partnership of both industry and government," said James Womack, Raytheon's RAM program director. "Thanks to our team's ability to implement spiral upgrades, RAM provides superior performance in a severe threat environment. In fact RAM is planned for the newest ship in the U.S. Navy, the Littoral Combat Ship."

A result of that spiral development, RAM Block 1 retains the existing RF- to-IR guidance modes of the Block 0 RAM, while incorporating a new image- scanning seeker. With the added capability of autonomous IR-all-the-way guidance, RAM Block 1 effectively counters advanced anti-ship missiles that do not employ on-board radar seekers.

Raytheon and its partners also provide a software upgrade to Block 1 RAM in order to engage helicopters, aircraft, and surface (HAS) targets. RAM Block 1's inherent IR seeker design and performance characteristics enable it to engage these targets via missile software enhancements, requiring no hardware modifications.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2003 sales of $18.1 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 78,000 people worldwide.

Source :
Raytheon Company
Web Site : http://ww.raytheon.com
Contact : John Eagles of Raytheon Company,
+1 502 364 6768,
+1 502 727 9391

With acknowledgement to Raytheon Company.

* RAM GMLS interfaces to the ship self-defense suite (SSDS) via means of a Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) link using CCII Systems's conduction-cooled FDDI PMC Adapter on the GMLS side and air-cooled FDDI PMC Adapter on the SSDS side.

Both interface units run under the VxWorks real-time operating system using real-time software drivers provided by CCII Systems.