...Raytheon has instituted a series of initiatives to recruit and promote racial minorities, gays, transgendered people, and people with disabilities, making the company the undisputed leader in changing the complexion of an industry long dominated by white men...The push to change the image of the Pentagon's fifth-largest contractor is considered a matter of survival. Raytheon faces the looming retirement of the baby boom generation and decided it must cast as wide a net as possible for new talent to help develop the technologies of the future...The company has a higher percentage of racial minorities than its defense industry peers...It also has an overall lower attrition rate of 4.5 percent, [Keith J.] Peden [the company's senior vice president for human resources] said.