The defence and aerospace company's net income fell to $11 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, including $284 million in after-tax charges. That compared with earnings of $211 million, or 88 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding the charges, the Lexington, Massachusetts-based company would have earned 86 cents per diluted share in the latest quarter, matching Wall Street's lowered estimates, as tracked by First Call Corp.

The company, which said it planned to cut the work force at its Raytheon Systems Co. by 16 per cent, or 14,000 jobs, over two years and downsize or eliminate about two dozen facilities, had issued a third-quarter profit warning on October 7

Bolstered by the performance of its Raytheon Systems and Raytheon Aircraft units, the company said its third-quarter sales rose about 29 percent to about $4.4 billion from about $3.4 billion.

The third-quarter sales numbers included a $310-million reduction from accounting changes related to contracts at its Raytheon Engineers & Constructors division, where it said it was correcting problems.

Giving earnings a big boost was the company's merger with Hughes Defence in December 1997, which helped push up sales in the company's electronics division by 58 per cent to $3.6 billion from about $2.3 billion, it said.