Wichita ? Raytheon Co. closed Monday on the sale of its aircraft operations to Hawker Beechcraft Inc., with the new owners planning to bolster its international sales and service, the company said.

The $3.3 billion dollar sale of Wichita-based Raytheon Aircraft to Hawker Beechcraft was first announced in December.

“This is not only great news for the company, it is great news for our employees. It is great news for our customers. … This is really great news for the community,” said Jim Schuster, chairman and chief executive officer for Hawker Beechcraft.

Raytheon, the world’s fifth-largest defense company, sold its aircraft unit to Hawker Beechcraft, the company formed by an affiliate of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Toronto-based private-equity firm Onex Partners LP.

“Any business ultimately stands up on its own legs,” Schuster told reporters in Wichita.

Onex is the same firm that bought The Boeing Co.’s commercial aircraft operations in Wichita, forming Wichita-based Spirit Aerosystems Inc.

Spirit Aerosystems went public last year.

Schuster acknowledged a lot of people have wondered whether Hawker Beechcraft would do the same, saying that at some point in time the company would have to return the investment back to the shareholders.

But Schuster said he did not see Hawker Beechcraft going public anytime soon.

“I would speculate that the probability of these investors exiting in the near future is very unlikely,” he said. “I think they are going to be here for a long time.”

Schuster noted that more than 30 of the company’s deliveries and 40 percent of its bookings last year were to international customers. The company has added sales staff in Dubai, China, Europe and South Africa. It is now negotiating various relationships with international partners to establish a sales and service presence.

The aircraft manufacturer makes Hawker and Beechcraft planes for commercial and military markets. It has more than 8,500 employees and about 100 centers worldwide. About 6,300 work at the company’s Wichita headquarters.

Included in the deal are facilities and other assets in Little Rock, Ark., Dallas, Wichita and Salina in Kansas and the company’s maintenance, service and support network across the United States, United Kingdom and Mexico.

The European Commission last month automatically cleared the deal after finding no antitrust problems.

“Completing the sale of Raytheon Aircraft Co. gives us further opportunity to invest in and grow our government and defense business and to deliver value to our shareholders,” William H. Swanson, Raytheon’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

The company said it would use part of the after-tax sale proceeds for early retirement of $1 billion of company debt and for its stock repurchase program. It earlier had authorized an increase of $750 million for the company’s stock repurchase program.