Raytheon

Raytheon Co. has agreed to buy AlliedSignal Communications Systems in Towson for $62.5 million, adding the local company to one of the top military electronics competitors in the world.The Towson plant, with about $122 million in projected sales this year, has been on the market since January as AlliedSignal Inc., based in Morristown, N.J., reconfigures itself to focus on core aerospace products.A Raytheon spokeswoman said the Lexington, Mass., company intends to employ all 700 or so Towson employees "initially" -- at least until the corporation sizes up the outfit and decides how it fits.

WASHINGTON -- Raytheon Co. and General Motors Corp.'s && Hughes Electronics won federal antitrust approval yesterday for their $9.5 billion combination, bringing the companies a step closer to creating the nation's third largest defense and aerospace company.In a settlement with the Justice Department and the Pentagon, Raytheon and Hughes agreed to sell two defense electronics businesses with combined sales of about $50 million, erect a firewall that preserves competition for an upcoming bid on a new missile for the U.S. Army and provide fixed prices for AMRAAM missiles as the sole supplier of those weapons.

A small Gaithersburg company has captured a $3 million contract from Raytheon Services Inc. to help improve air traffic control technology at American airports.The contract is small and spread out over a nine-year period, but Optelecom Inc. said yesterday that it hopes the contract will establish the company as a source for air traffic control equipment.Last month, Raytheon won a $1 billion Federal Aviation Administration contract to improve the decades-old computer systems that air traffic controllers use to monitor airspace within a 50-mile radius of airports.

There was more bad news yesterday for workers at the Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in Linthicum.The General Accounting Office has denied a challenge that Westinghouse filed against the Army's award of a contract to Lexington, Mass.-based Raytheon Corp. The contract, awarded in September, was for the production of a ground-based radar system to be used with a missile defense system similar to the Patriot.In its filing, Westinghouse argued that its bid for the $614.7 million contract -- the first phase of a pact that could have led to billions of dollars in new business over the next decade -- was 40 percent lower than Raytheon's.

Raytheon buys E-SystemsRaytheon Co. yesterday agreed to buy E-Systems Inc. for $2.3 billion, creating a $12 billion company and hastening the consolidation in the defense industry.Raytheon's purchase price for E-Systems was $64 a share, 41 percent over its closing price of $45.375 Friday. E-Systems shares gained $18.625 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, to close at $64. Raytheon was down $1.125, at $71.75.Dallas-based E-Systems makes electronic systems for commercial and defense applications.

In Baltimore CountyPolice arrest, charge man accused in sexual assault, carjackingTOWSON -- A man accused of carjacking and of sexually assaulting a woman at Woodlawn Cemetery on Sept. 26 has been arrested and charged, police said yesterday.Jerome Curtis Robinson, 38, of no fixed address was arrested Monday while driving a Kia Sephia stolen during the assault, according to police. A Regional Auto Theft squad officer recognized the vehicle and stopped it.Robinson is being held in the Baltimore County Detention Center.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - It's a photo that has been viewed by millions - a small white puff coming off the left underbelly of the space shuttle Columbia 82 seconds after it lifted off the launch pad. The puff was a doormat-size piece of foam that had peeled off the external fuel tank and caromed off the orbiter at nearly 500 mph. It could be the key to what caused Columbia to break into pieces in a fiery streak across the sky when it tried to return to...

JOHN R. GALVIN has appeared on a number of national news shows recently, including ABC's "Nightline" and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," trumpeting the benefits NATO.On the shows, he was identified as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University or as the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.But what the news shows haven't told us is that Galvin is also a member of the board of Raytheon Co., one of the nation's top three military contractors and corporate father of the Tomahawk Cruise missile, more than 160 of which have inflicted death and destruction on the former Yugoslavia.

For Israel, the best defense against rocket attacks could be a cheap defense. Even before fighting escalated this month between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, U.S. contractors had been working to supply Israel with countermeasures against the deadly rockets that the Lebanese militia has rained down on the north of the country. Ideas include low-cost interceptor missiles from Raytheon Co., and a laser system from Northrop Grumman Corp. that the U.S. Army has mothballed for lack of development money.