RTX Corporation
| RTX Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Traded as | NYSE: RTX DJIA component S&P 500 component |
| Industry | Aerospace Defence |
| Founded | 3 April 2020, by the merger of Raytheon Company (1922) and United Technologies Corporation (1934) |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, United States |
| Key people | Christopher T. Calio (President and chief executive officer) Gregory J. Hayes (former chairman) |
| Products | Aircraft engines, avionics, missiles, air and missile defence, radar, space systems |
| Employees | Approximately 185,000 |
| Website | rtx.com |
RTX Corporation, known as Raytheon Technologies until July 2023, is an American aerospace and defence company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is among the two or three largest defence contractors in the world and the largest aerospace supplier, and in 2025 it ranked second globally in arms production.
The company was formed on 3 April 2020 by the merger of the Raytheon Company, founded in 1922, with United Technologies Corporation, founded in 1934, the latter having first separated its Otis elevator and Carrier air conditioning businesses so that the combination would be purely aerospace and defence.
It operates through three divisions. Collins Aerospace supplies avionics, interiors, power systems and mechanical systems for commercial and military aircraft. Pratt and Whitney makes jet engines, including the F135 that powers the F-35 and the geared turbofan family for commercial airliners. Raytheon makes missiles, air and missile defence systems, radar, sensors and space systems, including the Patriot, the AMRAAM, the Tomahawk, the Standard Missile family and the NASAMS.
The company derives roughly half its revenue from commercial aerospace and half from defence, a balance that distinguishes it from pure defence contractors and that exposes it to two very different cycles.
RTX has been the subject of substantial legal and political difficulty, including a settlement of more than US$950 million in October 2024 resolving investigations into bribery in Qatar, defective pricing in government contracts and export control violations; a US$200 million export control penalty in August 2024; Chinese sanctions imposed in 2024 and 2025 over arms sales to Taiwan; and sustained protest over the supply of weapons used in Gaza.
History
Raytheon before the merger
Raytheon was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1922 by Vannevar Bush, Laurence Marshall and Charles G. Smith as the American Appliance Company, initially to make a refrigerator and then a gas rectifier tube that allowed radios to run from mains electricity rather than batteries. Vannevar Bush later became the principal organiser of American scientific research during the Second World War and the author of the report that led to the National Science Foundation.
The company's defining work was in microwaves. Percy Spencer, an engineer with almost no formal education, devised a method of mass-producing the magnetron, the device at the heart of radar, increasing output from a handful a day to more than a thousand, and Raytheon produced the great majority of the magnetrons used by the Allies. Spencer also noticed, on a well-documented occasion, that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted near an active magnetron, and Raytheon subsequently produced the first commercial microwave oven, the Radarange, in 1947.
After the war the company moved into guided missiles, producing the Lark, then the Sparrow, the Hawk, the Sidewinder in part, the Patriot, the AMRAAM and the Tomahawk following its 1997 acquisition of Hughes Aircraft's defence business and Texas Instruments' defence operations. The Patriot's performance during the 1991 Gulf War, initially reported as near-perfect and subsequently assessed as considerably less effective, made the system among the most publicly discussed weapons of the period.
Raytheon also owned Beech Aircraft and other commercial businesses through the 1980s and 1990s, and divested them to concentrate on defence.
United Technologies before the merger
United Technologies traced to the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, assembled in 1929 by Frederick Rentschler and broken up by the Air Mail Act of 1934, which separated aircraft manufacture from air transport. The residual manufacturing business became United Aircraft and, from 1975 under Harry Gray, United Technologies.
Pratt and Whitney, founded in 1925, became one of the three principal jet engine makers alongside General Electric and Rolls-Royce. Its engines powered a very large proportion of post-war airliners, and it lost substantial ground to General Electric in the 1980s and 1990s before returning with the geared turbofan.
Sikorsky, the helicopter manufacturer, was part of the group until its sale to Lockheed Martin in 2015 for approximately US$9 billion.
United Technologies also owned Otis, the elevator company, and Carrier, the air conditioning company founded by the inventor of modern air conditioning, and both were separated on 3 April 2020 immediately before the Raytheon merger.
The group acquired Rockwell Collins in 2018 for approximately US$30 billion, combining it with its own aerospace systems business to form Collins Aerospace.
Merger and since, 2020 to 2026
The merger completed on 3 April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, which was an unfortunate moment: commercial aviation, roughly half the combined company, collapsed within weeks, and the first two years were dominated by managing that.
Gregory Hayes, who had run United Technologies since 2016, led the combined company, and Christopher Calio, a United Technologies and Pratt and Whitney executive, succeeded him as chief executive in May 2024.
The name changed from Raytheon Technologies to RTX Corporation in July 2023, with the three divisions retaining their own names, a step intended to establish a corporate identity distinct from any one business.
In July 2023 the company agreed to sell the actuation and flight control business of Collins Aerospace to Safran for approximately US$1.8 billion.
The most serious operational problem of the period emerged the same month. A manufacturing contamination in powdered metal used for high-pressure turbine discs in the PW1100G geared turbofan, which powers the Airbus A320neo family, required the inspection and in many cases replacement of components across a very large part of the fleet. RTX disclosed that approximately 600 to 700 engines would need removal for inspection, that aircraft would be grounded for extended periods, and that the total charge would be in the region of US$3 billion. Several hundred A320neo aircraft were out of service at the peak, principally affecting Wizz Air, IndiGo, Lufthansa and Spirit. The episode is among the most expensive quality failures in the history of commercial aviation and is separate from, though compounding of, the earlier reliability difficulties the geared turbofan had experienced in service.
Defence demand rose substantially over the same period, driven by the war in Ukraine, by Middle Eastern conflicts and by increased European spending. RTX's missile and air defence products, in particular Patriot, NASAMS, Stinger and AMRAAM, were consumed and replaced at rates that exposed the limits of the industrial base, and the company expanded production capacity for several of them with government support.
Divisions
Collins Aerospace
Collins Aerospace supplies systems for essentially every commercial and military aircraft in production, and its content on a typical airliner is worth several million dollars.
Its products include avionics and flight displays, flight management systems, communication and navigation equipment, landing gear and wheels and brakes, electric power generation and distribution, environmental control, oxygen and evacuation systems, cabin interiors including seats, galleys and lavatories, and the connectivity equipment through which aircraft communicate with the ground. It also supplies ejection seats, military communications including the ARC-210 radio family, and space suits and life support, having developed the suits used on Apollo and the International Space Station.
The business was assembled from Rockwell Collins, acquired in 2018, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, itself the combination of Hamilton Sundstrand and Goodrich, acquired in 2012 for approximately US$18.4 billion, and a number of earlier acquisitions.
Its commercial character is that of a supplier to two customers, Boeing and Airbus, whose production rates determine its revenue and whose bargaining power is considerable, offset by the aftermarket, where spare parts and maintenance on an installed base of tens of thousands of aircraft produce higher margins over decades.
Pratt and Whitney
Pratt and Whitney makes large commercial engines, military engines and, through Pratt and Whitney Canada, engines for regional aircraft, business jets and helicopters.
Its principal military product is the F135, the engine of the F-35, of which it is the sole supplier, including the lift fan arrangement for the short takeoff and vertical landing variant. The engine's thrust is the highest of any fighter engine, and its cooling capacity has become a constraint as the aircraft's electronics have grown, producing a long argument between Pratt and Whitney's proposed Engine Core Upgrade and an alternative adaptive engine programme, resolved in favour of the upgrade in 2023. It also makes the F119 for the F-22 and a range of older engines.
Its principal commercial product is the geared turbofan, designated PW1000G, which places a reduction gearbox between the fan and the low-pressure turbine so that each can run at its optimal speed. The fan turns slowly and the turbine fast, which improves efficiency by around 15 per cent and reduces noise substantially. The concept had been attempted before and the gearbox, transmitting tens of thousands of horsepower continuously for thousands of hours, was the obstacle; Pratt and Whitney spent approximately twenty years and several billion dollars on it.
The engine powers the A220, the A320neo family, the Embraer E2 and the Irkut MC-21. Its efficiency advantage is real and its service history has been troubled, with early reliability problems in hot and dusty environments and then the powdered metal contamination disclosed in 2023.
Pratt and Whitney Canada, based near Montreal, is a substantial business in its own right, with the PT6 turboprop being among the most produced aircraft engines in history.
Raytheon
The Raytheon division consolidated the former Raytheon Company's missile business with the integrated defence and space businesses in a 2023 reorganisation.
Its effectors include the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the principal Western beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile; the AIM-9X Sidewinder; the Tomahawk cruise missile; the Standard Missile family, SM-2, SM-3 and SM-6, used by naval air and missile defence, with the SM-3 capable of intercepting ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere; the Javelin anti-tank missile, produced in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin; the Stinger; the Paveway guided bomb kits; and the StormBreaker glide bomb.
Its air and missile defence systems include the Patriot, which has been used extensively in Ukraine and the Middle East and which the war has made among the most sought-after systems in the world, the NASAMS medium-range system developed with Kongsberg, the Coyote counter-drone interceptor, and directed energy programmes.
Its sensors include the AN/SPY-6 naval radar, the LTAMDS next-generation Patriot radar, and airborne radars including the APG-79 and APG-82 active electronically scanned arrays.
Its space and command systems cover missile warning, weather sensing and ground systems.
Corporate affairs
Leadership
Christopher T. Calio became president and chief executive in May 2024. He joined United Technologies as a lawyer in 2005, moved into operating roles, ran Pratt and Whitney and then served as chief operating officer.
Gregory J. Hayes, born in 1960 or 1961, was chief executive of United Technologies from September 2016 and of the merged company from April 2020, and remained executive chairman after Calio's appointment before retiring. His tenure encompassed the separation of Otis and Carrier, the Rockwell Collins acquisition, the Raytheon merger, the pandemic and the beginning of the engine difficulties.
Thomas Kennedy, the last chief executive of the Raytheon Company, served as executive chairman of the merged group until 2022.
Headquarters and workforce
The headquarters moved from Waltham, Massachusetts, where Raytheon had been based, to Arlington, Virginia, in 2022, a relocation into the Washington area consistent with that of several other large defence companies and criticised in Massachusetts as a loss of the state's most significant industrial headquarters.
RTX employs approximately 185,000 people. Its principal sites include East Hartford and Middletown in Connecticut for Pratt and Whitney, Cedar Rapids in Iowa and Charlotte in North Carolina for Collins Aerospace, Tucson in Arizona for missiles, Andover and Tewksbury in Massachusetts for radar and defence systems, Dallas and McKinney in Texas, El Segundo in California, and Longueuil in Quebec for Pratt and Whitney Canada.
The workforce is substantially unionised in manufacturing, principally through the International Association of Machinists, and a strike at Pratt and Whitney's Connecticut plants in May 2024 was settled after three weeks with a substantial wage agreement.
Finances
Revenue has run in the region of US$65 billion to US$85 billion in recent years, with the split between commercial aerospace and defence roughly even and shifting with the aviation cycle.
Backlog, the value of contracted work not yet performed, has exceeded US$200 billion, among the largest of any company, reflecting both long-dated defence programmes and commercial engine orders whose deliveries extend for a decade.
Margins differ sharply by division. The commercial aftermarket, spare parts and maintenance on installed engines and systems, is the most profitable part of the company, which is why the geared turbofan problem is so costly: an engine removed for inspection generates no aftermarket revenue while consuming the parts and labour that would otherwise be sold.
RTX pays a substantial dividend and has repurchased shares consistently, including an accelerated programme funded partly by the Safran divestment.
Timeline
- 1922 Raytheon is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Vannevar Bush, Laurence Marshall and Charles G. Smith.
- 1925 Pratt and Whitney is founded.
- 1934 The Air Mail Act breaks up United Aircraft and Transport; United Aircraft remains.
- 1940s Percy Spencer's magnetron production makes Raytheon the principal Allied radar supplier; the Radarange microwave oven follows in 1947.
- 1975 United Aircraft becomes United Technologies.
- 1991 The Patriot's performance in the Gulf War brings Raytheon to public attention.
- 1997 Raytheon acquires Hughes Aircraft's defence business and Texas Instruments' defence operations.
- 2012 United Technologies acquires Goodrich for approximately US$18.4 billion.
- 2015 Sikorsky is sold to Lockheed Martin for approximately US$9 billion.
- 2018 Rockwell Collins is acquired for approximately US$30 billion.
- 2020 Otis and Carrier are separated and the Raytheon merger completes on 3 April; the pandemic removes most commercial revenue.
- 2022 The headquarters moves to Arlington, Virginia; demand for missiles and air defence rises sharply after the invasion of Ukraine.
- 2023 The name changes to RTX Corporation in July; the geared turbofan powdered metal contamination is disclosed; the actuation business is sold to Safran.
- 2024 Christopher Calio becomes chief executive in May; a US$200 million export control penalty is imposed in August; a settlement exceeding US$950 million is announced on 16 October; China sanctions Raytheon Missiles and Defense in May.
- 2025 China adds Raytheon Missiles and Defense to an export control list on 2 January; RTX ranks second in the world in arms production.
Products in brief
Engines: F135 for the F-35; F119 for the F-22; PW1000G geared turbofan family for the A220, A320neo, E2 and MC-21; PW4000 and V2500, the latter through the International Aero Engines consortium; PT6, PW100 and PW300 series from Pratt and Whitney Canada.
Missiles and munitions: AMRAAM, Sidewinder, Tomahawk, Standard Missile 2, 3 and 6, ESSM, Javelin with Lockheed Martin, TOW, Stinger, Paveway, StormBreaker, Coyote, AARGM in part, and hypersonic development programmes.
Air and missile defence: Patriot with the PAC-3 interceptor supplied by Lockheed Martin, NASAMS with Kongsberg, LTAMDS radar, counter-drone systems, and directed energy.
Sensors and radar: AN/SPY-6, AN/APG-79, AN/APG-82, AN/TPY-2 and a range of electro-optical and infrared systems.
Aircraft systems: avionics, flight management, landing gear, wheels and brakes, power generation, environmental control, oxygen systems, cabin interiors, ejection seats, ARC-210 radios, and space suits and life support.
Space: missile warning sensors, weather instruments and ground systems.
Legal and political issues
Fraud, bribery and export controls
On 16 October 2024 RTX agreed to pay more than US$950 million to resolve several federal investigations.
The components were a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resolution concerning bribery to obtain business in Qatar, in which a subsidiary admitted paying a Qatari agent who was a relative of an official; a False Claims Act resolution concerning defective pricing, the provision of inaccurate cost information during negotiation of government contracts, in respect of Patriot and radar work; and export control matters. Deferred prosecution agreements and an independent compliance monitor were imposed.
Separately, in August 2024, RTX was fined US$200 million for violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including the transfer of controlled data and products involving prohibited destinations including China.
The sequence is consistent with a broader pattern in defence contracting, in which the combination of very large sums, sole-source negotiation and agents operating in jurisdictions with different norms produces recurring failures, and in which penalties are large in absolute terms and modest relative to the revenue at stake.
China
China's foreign ministry announced sanctions on Raytheon Missiles and Defense on 22 May 2024, and on 2 January 2025 China's Ministry of Commerce placed Raytheon Missiles and Defense among 28 American entities on an export control list under its Export Control Law and dual-use regulations.
The measures respond to American arms sales to Taiwan and have limited direct commercial effect, since RTX does not sell defence products to China, and some indirect effect on the commercial aerospace business and on supply chains.
Gaza
RTX's supply of weapons used by Israel during the Gaza war has produced sustained protest. Demonstrators blocked the entrance to an RTX facility in Arizona on 14 December 2023, and fifteen people were arrested in an action in early 2024. Divestment campaigns have targeted the company at universities and public pension funds, and shareholder resolutions concerning human rights due diligence have been filed.
The company's position, which is the industry's, is that its sales are licensed by the United States government and that decisions about which governments receive American weapons are made by elected officials.
Other
RTX has also faced litigation and regulatory attention over a no-poach agreement among aerospace engineering firms, which produced criminal charges against executives at a Pratt and Whitney supplier and an acquittal in 2023; over pension and benefit matters; and over environmental contamination at legacy sites, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances associated with firefighting foam at several facilities.
Assessment
RTX is a company whose two halves have almost nothing in common except that both involve aircraft, and whose recent history has been determined by the fact that they failed and succeeded at the same time.
The merger's rationale was balance: commercial aerospace and defence are driven by different cycles, and a company holding both should be steadier than one holding either. The first six years tested that proposition in both directions. The pandemic removed most of the commercial business within weeks of the merger closing, and the recovery has been constrained since 2023 by the geared turbofan contamination, a manufacturing failure whose cost approaches US$3 billion and which has kept several hundred aircraft on the ground. Simultaneously the war in Ukraine and the Middle Eastern conflicts produced demand for the division's missiles and air defence systems at levels the industrial base had not been built to supply.
The engine problem is the more instructive. The geared turbofan is a genuine engineering achievement that took two decades, delivers the efficiency it promised, and has been undermined by a metallurgical contamination in a supplier's powder. The vulnerability it exposed, that a defect in a single material lot can propagate across an entire fleet because modern manufacturing is so consolidated, is not specific to RTX and has no obvious remedy.
The legal record is the least defensible part of the company. A settlement of more than US$950 million covering bribery, defective pricing and export violations, arriving two months after a separate US$200 million export penalty, describes a compliance failure across several unrelated areas rather than a single lapse, and it occurred in a business whose customer is the United States government and whose products are lethal.