RTX’s Raytheon lands $1.15B missiles contract

Arlington County-based Raytheon, a business unit of newly rebranded aerospace and defense contractor RTX, will produce Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles for the U.S. Air Force and Navy as well as foreign militaries under a $1.15 billion contract announced by the Pentagon Tuesday.

The contract includes missiles, the AMRAAM telemetry system, spares and other production engineering support. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be complete by Jan. 31, 2027.

About 39% of the contract value includes unclassified sales to Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

According to Raytheon, this is the largest AMRAAM missile contract to date and the fifth production lot of the advanced missiles developed under the “form, fit, function refresh” (F3R) initiative, which updates the missile’s hardware and allows for Agile software upgrades.

“We recognize AMRAAM is the most advanced, combat-proven missile, and we owe it to the warfighters to ensure they have the technology they need when they need it,” Paul Ferraro, president of air power for Raytheon, said in a statement. “Be it air-to-air or surface-to-air, AMRAAM continues its proud legacy with greater power and precision than ever before with this contract.”

Under the F3R program, engineers used model-based systems engineering initiatives and other digital technologies to upgrade multiple circuit cards and other hardware in the guidance section of the missile and to re-host legacy software in the AIM-120 D-3 and AIM-120 C-8 AMRAAMs.

News of the contract comes on the heels of Raytheon Technologies’ announcement that it is rebranding as RTX as it consolidates its business units from four to three: aerospace and defense technology supplier Collins Aerospace, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina; aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, headquartered in East Hartford, Connecticut; and Raytheon.

RTX employs more than 180,000 people globally and is headquartered in Arlington.