<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<InstanceReport xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Version>2.2.0.7</Version>
  <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
  <ReportName>INVENTORIES</ReportName>
  <ReportLongName>112 - Disclosure - INVENTORIES</ReportLongName>
  <DisplayLabelColumn>true</DisplayLabelColumn>
  <ShowElementNames>false</ShowElementNames>
  <RoundingOption />
  <HasEmbeddedReports>false</HasEmbeddedReports>
  <Columns>
    <Column>
      <LabelColumn>false</LabelColumn>
      <Id>1</Id>
      <Labels>
        <Label Id="1" Label="9 Months Ended" />
        <Label Id="2" Label="Sep. 26, 2010" />
      </Labels>
      <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
      <FootnoteIndexer />
      <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
      <hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios>
      <Segments />
      <Scenarios />
      <Units>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>iso4217_USD</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Standard</UnitType>
          <StandardMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>USD</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>iso4217</MeasureNamespace>
          </StandardMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>shares</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Standard</UnitType>
          <StandardMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>shares</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace />
          </StandardMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>iso4217_USD_per_shares</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Divide</UnitType>
          <NumeratorMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>USD</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>iso4217</MeasureNamespace>
          </NumeratorMeasure>
          <DenominatorMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>shares</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace />
          </DenominatorMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
      </Units>
      <CurrencySymbol>$</CurrencySymbol>
    </Column>
  </Columns>
  <Rows>
    <Row>
      <Id>5</Id>
      <Label>INVENTORIES</Label>
      <Level>3</Level>
      <ElementName>us-gaap_InventoryDisclosureTextBlock</ElementName>
      <ElementPrefix>us-gaap</ElementPrefix>
      <IsBaseElement>true</IsBaseElement>
      <BalanceType>na</BalanceType>
      <PeriodType>duration</PeriodType>
      <ShortDefinition>No definition available.</ShortDefinition>
      <IsReportTitle>false</IsReportTitle>
      <IsSegmentTitle>false</IsSegmentTitle>
      <IsSubReportEnd>false</IsSubReportEnd>
      <IsCalendarTitle>false</IsCalendarTitle>
      <IsTuple>false</IsTuple>
      <IsAbstractGroupTitle>false</IsAbstractGroupTitle>
      <IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>false</IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>
      <IsEquityAdjustmentRow>false</IsEquityAdjustmentRow>
      <IsBeginningBalance>false</IsBeginningBalance>
      <IsEndingBalance>false</IsEndingBalance>
      <IsReverseSign>false</IsReverseSign>
      <PreferredLabelRole>verboselabel</PreferredLabelRole>
      <IsEPS>false</IsEPS>
      <FootnoteIndexer />
      <Cells>
        <Cell>
          <Id>1</Id>
          <ShowCurrencySymbol>false</ShowCurrencySymbol>
          <IsNumeric>false</IsNumeric>
          <IsRatio>false</IsRatio>
          <DisplayZeroAsNone>false</DisplayZeroAsNone>
          <NumericAmount>0</NumericAmount>
          <RoundedNumericAmount>0</RoundedNumericAmount>
          <NonNumbericText>&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;NOTE 5 &amp;#x2013;
INVENTORIES&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="MARGIN-TOP: 6px; TEXT-INDENT: 4%; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"&gt;
&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;Inventories consisted of
the following components:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12px"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" align="center"&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td width="78%"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" width="7%"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" width="7%"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom" colspan="2" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="1"&gt;&lt;b&gt;September&amp;#xA0;26,&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="1"&gt;&lt;b&gt;2010&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom" colspan="2" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="1"&gt;&lt;b&gt;December&amp;#xA0;31,&lt;br /&gt;
2009&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" colspan="6" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="1"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;(In
millions)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr bgcolor="#CCEEFF"&gt;
&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;p style="TEXT-INDENT: -1em; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;Work-in-process, primarily related to
long-term contracts and programs in progress&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;$&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;6,491&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;$&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;5,565&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;p style="TEXT-INDENT: -1em; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;Less: Customer advances and progress
payments&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;(4,717&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;)&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;(3,941&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;)&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr bgcolor="#CCEEFF"&gt;
&lt;td valign="top"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;1,774&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;1,624&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td valign="top"&gt;
&lt;p style="TEXT-INDENT: -1em; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;Other inventories&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;319&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;559&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr bgcolor="#CCEEFF"&gt;
&lt;td valign="top"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;$&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;2,093&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font size="1"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;$&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;2,183&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap"&gt;&lt;font style="FONT-FAMILY: ARIAL" size="2"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px double" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px double" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td valign="bottom"&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px double" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: #000000 3px double" valign="bottom"&gt;
&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</NonNumbericText>
          <NonNumericTextHeader>NOTE 5 &amp;#x2013;
INVENTORIES

Inventories consisted of
the following</NonNumericTextHeader>
          <FootnoteIndexer />
          <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
          <hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios>
          <DisplayDateInUSFormat>false</DisplayDateInUSFormat>
        </Cell>
      </Cells>
      <OriginalInstanceReportColumns />
      <ElementDataType>us-types:textBlockItemType</ElementDataType>
      <SimpleDataType>textblock</SimpleDataType>
      <ElementDefenition>This element represents the complete disclosure related to inventory. This may include, but is not limited to, the basis of stating inventory, the method of determining inventory cost, the major classes of inventory, and the nature of the cost elements included in inventory. If inventory is stated above cost, accrued net losses on firm purchase commitments for inventory and losses resulting from valuing inventory at the lower-of-cost-or-market may also be included. For LIFO inventory, may disclose the amount and basis for determining the excess of replacement or current cost over stated LIFO value and the effects of a LIFO quantities liquidation that impacts net income.</ElementDefenition>
      <ElementReferences>Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
 -Publisher AICPA
 -Name Accounting Research Bulletin (ARB)
 -Number 43
 -Chapter 3
 -Section A
 -Paragraph 9

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
 -Publisher SEC
 -Name Regulation S-X (SX)
 -Number 210
 -Section 02
 -Paragraph 6
 -Subparagraph a, b, c
 -Article 5

</ElementReferences>
      <IsTotalLabel>false</IsTotalLabel>
    </Row>
  </Rows>
  <Footnotes />
  <NumberOfCols>1</NumberOfCols>
  <NumberOfRows>1</NumberOfRows>
  <HasScenarios>false</HasScenarios>
  <MonetaryRoundingLevel>UnKnown</MonetaryRoundingLevel>
  <SharesRoundingLevel>UnKnown</SharesRoundingLevel>
  <PerShareRoundingLevel>UnKnown</PerShareRoundingLevel>
  <HasPureData>false</HasPureData>
  <SharesShouldBeRounded>true</SharesShouldBeRounded>
</InstanceReport>
