DULLES, Va., Oct. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The first 10 Afghan Air Force (AAF) students graduated as commercial-level rotary-wing pilots on a contract led by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) to provide training for up to 80 Afghan airmen on fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

The graduation ceremony, held Sept. 26 in the Middle East, marked the students' completion of a two-year program that included English language immersion training, ground school and flight training. Nearly 70 additional Afghan airmen are in various stages of the three-part training and will graduate on a staggered schedule over the next year.

Raytheon was awarded the three-year, $42.8 million training contract to support NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan in October 2010 under the U.S. Army's Warfighter Field Operations Customer Support (FOCUS) contract.

"Raytheon is privileged to be a part of the crucial effort to help field a fully independent and operationally capable Afghan Air Force," said program manager Bob Williams, a vice president for Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC. Williams leads the Warrior Training Alliance (WTA) consortium of more than 140 vetted companies for Warfighter FOCUS. Horizon Flight Academy, a WTA subcontractor, was competitively selected by Raytheon to conduct the training.

About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2011 sales of $25 billion and 71,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 90 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @raytheon.

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SOURCE Raytheon Company