RTX is the world’s second largest arms company, according to SIPRI. It was formed in 2020 following the merger of aerospace giants Raytheon and United Technologies. It was formerly named Raytheon Technologies, and one of its three sub-businesses retains the name Raytheon. In 2023, RTX claimed it was the “world’s largest producer of guided missiles”.
RTX posted 2024 arms revenues of US$ 43.6 billion from arms, about 54% of its total revenues. The US government is RTX’s largest single customer. 57% of RTX sales came from US clients and 20% from its European clients. RTX comprises three businesses: Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. Collins Aerospace provides avionics and aircraft systems to civilian and military clients, Pratt & Whitney supplies aircraft engines, and Raytheon sells defence electronics, missiles, radar and intelligence solutions primarily for military clients.
Headquartered in the defence contractor hub of Arlington, Virginia, RTX’s three businesses each have multiple US offices. Collins also has offices in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and the UK. Pratt & Whitney has a presence in Canada and the US, while Raytheon has offices in the US and UK. RTX has subsidiaries in: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE and the UK. The company employs 186,000 global employees across 52 countries, with 68% in the US.
RTX in the UK
RTX has a UK subsidiary, Raytheon Systems Limited, which is engaged in the core RTX business segments – Defence, Aerospace, Cyber & Intelligence. The company reports that it has been “in the UK, in one form or another, for more than 100 years.” Its physical presence includes 30 UK sites, including in Broughton in Wales, Livingston and Glenrothes in Scotland, and Harlow, Gloucester and Manchester. It employs over 35,000 people, over 80% of which are in England.
It is a major supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence. For example, in 2025 Raytheon UK completed integration trials for the Paveway IV dual-mode, precision-guided missile on the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft at Royal Air Force Marham and MOD Aberporth. In 2022, it became the prime contractor and systems integrator for the crew training programme on the UK’s future class of nuclear-armed submarines, Dreadnought.
Between 2008 and 2021, RTX obtained military export licences to 65 countries, most of which were for items in the ML-10 category: aircraft, helicopters, drones
Aircraft engines
RTX is a significant supplier of engines to some of the world’s best known military aircraft. RTX reported in 2024 that its engine business, Pratt & Whitney, has more than 90,000 engines in service powering aircraft across civilian and military sectors. Pratt & Whitney provides engines for a range of military aircraft. These include engines for: the F-35 fighter jet, F-22 Raptor, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon fighter jets, the C-17 Globemaster III transport craft, B-52 bombers, and NATO E-3 Sentry surveillance craft. Collins Aerospace produces the Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS) which will be used for future fighter jet development.
Missiles
Missile development is central to RTX’s business. Its business Raytheon has invested more than US$ 500 million in missile production facilities, including a 2024 expansion of its Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility in Alabama. A selection of Raytheon’s missile products is profiled below.
Air-to-air missiles
Raytheon’s Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is used by over 40 militaries and can equip the well-known fighter jets Eurotyphoon, F-16, and F-35, on the latter of which is the only radar-guided, air-to-air missile cleared to fly. Raytheon produces the US Navy’s AIM-9X SIDEWINDER missiles, which is also used by over 30 countries, and on the same fighter jets. In 2021, Raytheon won a contract to develop the US Air Force’s nuclear-capable Long Range Standoff Weapon system.
Air-to-surface effectors
Raytheon’s StormBreaker smart weapon “autonomously detects and classifies moving targets”, and is used by the US Airforce and Navy on its F-35 and F/A-18E/F jets. Its Paveway laser-guided bomb has been used in US campaigns in Iraq, NATO operations in Libya, and by Saudi forces in Yemen. Raytheon Technologies will earn up to US$ 2 billion to develop the US Air Force’s Long Range Standoff Weapon system, a new nuclear-capable, air-launched cruise missile that will be carried by B-52 and B-21 bombers.
Targeting systems
Raytheon produces integrated sensor solutions for missile systems. These include PhantomStrike, recently integrated into Korean fighter jets, RTX equips the US Air Force with Phantomstrike missile radar system for its X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft. It also produces the Multi-Spectral Targeting System integrated into Reaper and Predator drone systems, among others.
Land- and ship-fired missiles
Raytheon’s TOW Improved Target Acquisition System can fire missiles from land vehicles.
Missile defence systems
Alongside missiles, RTX produces missile defence systems. Raytheon is engaged with Israeli arms giant Rafael in the R2S joint venture to produce interceptors for the Iron Dome, Israel’s best-known medium- to long-range missile defence system, and SkyHunter interceptor, the US variant.
RTX business Raytheon was awarded US$ 2.4 billion in contracts for Patriot air and missile defence systems used in the US and 18 further countries including Poland and Germany. It is also developing a Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense System (LTAMDS) air and missile radar for the US Army and Poland. In 2024, it provided M-3 exo-atmospheric missile defense interceptors to the American navy and international customers. It also produces the Sentinel vehicle-mounted radar system. In 2025, Raytheon was awarded a US$ 168 million contract to provide the Romanian military with the Patriot system.
In 2022, the US State Department agreed that Qatar could purchase 10 defensive drone systems, 200 interceptors and related equipment, with Raytheon and Northrup Grumman as the primary contractors.
Controversies
Saudi Arabia and Yemen
Raytheon’s technologies have been central to Saudi Arabia’s devastating attacks on Yemen – attacks that have killed thousands and created a humanitarian disaster. For example, Raytheon’s Paveway have been documented by Human Rights Watch as being used against civilian structures in Yemen. The bombs are manufactured in Harlow and Glenrothes in the UK. The UK government has confirmed that it accelerated delivery of Paveway precision-guided bombs in response to Saudi requests for additional UK support. As noted above, Raytheon produces missiles that can equip Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets, which have been used by Saudi forces to bomb Yemen. Raytheon has commercial agreements with Saudi domestic arms companies including SAMI and Advanced Electronics Company.
In December 2019, a coalition of human rights groups led by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and including CAAT submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague asking for an investigation into whether senior arms company executives and government officials may be responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes in Yemen. The complaint listed Raytheon UK alongside BAE Systems, Leonardo, Airbus, Dassault, RWM Italia, MBDA, and Thales. As of 2025, the coalition was still awaiting a response from the ICC Prosecutor’s office.
Israel and the Palestinian territories
Raytheon is a significant supplier of missiles and other goods and services to the Israeli military, both through US foreign military sales and direct commercial sales. As such it is implicated in Israel’s war on Gaza; its CEO in October 2023 stated that the company stood to “benefit” from increased DoD spending in light of the escalation in hostilities there.
Raytheon provided the Israeli government with at least 8,188 TOW, 1,360 AGM-65 Maverick, 4,842 Sidewinder, and 154 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, according to SIPRI. Many of the missiles described above – the GBU-28, Sidewinder, Paveway—have been reported by Israeli and international media to have been used in Gaza. As noted above Raytheon also provides weapon systems, components, and maintenance services to F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets; these likely include the Israeli Air Force’s own fleets which have been documented to have been deployed in Gaza.
As noted above, Raytheon is engaged with Israeli arms giant Rafael in the R2S joint venture to produce interceptors for the Iron Dome, Israel’s best-known missile defence system, most recently securing a US$ 1.25 billion missile contract. Other Israeli of Raytheon origin include David’s Sling, co-developed with Rafael (also acquired by Finland). Also with Rafael, Raytheon produces the Stunner missile interceptor system operated by the IDF.
Raytheon has attracted protest and campaign actions due to its prominent role arming the Israeli military, in the US, Scotland (where Raytheon is benefitting from public finance).
Border security
Raytheon is a significant contractor with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other immigration and border agencies.
Raytheon systems such as the SeaVue marine search radar are installed on CBP ‘surveillance’ drones along US coastlines and in the Caribbean. In 2025, international media began reporting that the US military was carrying lethal drone strikes against officially against narcotic trafficking-related targets in the Caribbean and Pacific, which have resulted in some civilian deaths. It is unclear if Raytheon technologies were involved in these strikes. Raytheon has long been significant contractor for US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), which have been increasingly adopting vigilante practices of extrajudicial detention and abduction against migrants and citizens alike. In 2011, it was providing investigative case management databases to the agency. The Transnational Institute (TNI), reports that Raytheon was one of the top contractors between 2005 and 2019 in US efforts to erect a “smart/virtual” wall on its southern border.
According to the Transnational Institute (TNI), Raytheon is one of the most significant companies receiving contracts for border-security operations overseas. It obtained over $1 billion between 2004 and 2019 from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency – including for work in Jordan and the Philippines. It obtained US$ 37 million from CBP over 35 contracts between 2005 and 2019. Raytheon also had a contract to provide an electronic border control system at London’s Heathrow airport; in 2014, the UK government was ordered to pay Raytheon US$ 374 million in damages for cancelling it.
Corruption and export violations
In 2024, Raytheon Company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice related to charges involving in a scheme to bribe a government official in Qatar and conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act. It was ordered to pay US$ 950 million to resolve the US Justice Department’s investigations.
Lobbying
RTX is a major political lobbyist. In 2024, RTX spent US$ 13.5 million on lobbying activities, contributing US$ 3.8 million to candidates that year, around half from the Democratic and half from the Republican parties, according to OpenSecrets. In 2009, ABC news reported that RTX (as Raytheon) lobbied the US Congress against adopting a resolution recognising the Armenian genocide. At the time, Raytheon was reported to have sold Stinger missile launcher systems to Turkey. In the US, RTX, then-Raytheon held 57 private meetings with the UK government in 2016.
