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. This does not mean the Tucson location will close at all. Raytheon is one of the world’s largest defense contractors, and has regularly led the way in other fields, especially in electronic technology. Source for this article – Raytheon selects Alabama for new missile plant by Personal Money Store.
New plant in Tucson was not feasible
Raytheon Missile Systems required a new facility for testing and building a ship defense project and for a new ship-based interceptor missile according to Business Week. (It will shoot down other 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. Huntsville, Alabama, was picked as the new site. The facility can have its ground breaking fairly soon, and it can be a $ 75 million, 70,000 square foot building. The mortgage payments have got to be killer.
Raytheon focuses on objectives like a laser
The Star Wars project made Ronald Reagan a laughingstock, but Raytheon is making laser weapons work. Raytheon has designed a defensive laser weapon that can shoot an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle down easily. At a recent test on the California coast, a model of the Laser Area Weapon System shot down 4 UAVs out of the sky, according to CNET. The high intensity beam causes the targets to burst into flames in moments and drop from the sky.
A strong legacy
Raytheon was a business with a history of innovation and engineering excellence before they built their first missile. It was Raytheon (then the American Appliance Company) that first developed a gas filled vacuum tube that could power radios by plugging them to the wall, instead of a battery. (You will find still individuals who rant and rave about how great tube sound is.) Among other Raytheon innovations were radar for naval vessels and also the microwave oven.
Citations
news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10004204.html?tag=mncol
businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9H3GKRO0.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon
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