Raytheon

On July 7, 1922, Vannevar Bush, Laurence K. Marshall, and Charles G. Smith incorporated the American Appliance Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The firm initially made refrigeration compressors and radio tubes, but by 1925 it had adopted the name Raytheon, from the French for "ray of the gods." That pivot toward electronics proved prescient. During World War II, Raytheon's magnetrons and radar systems made it a critical military supplier, and by the postwar era it had become the world's largest producer of guided missiles. Today, Raytheon operates as a business unit of RTX Corporation, the aerospace and defense giant formed by the 2020 merger with United Technologies.

Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Raytheon's largest facility is in Tucson, Arizona, where it builds and tests missiles. The company also has major operations in Huntsville, Alabama, and Arlington, Virginia, where RTX is based. With products used by over 80 nations, Raytheon maintains offices and production sites in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Australia, among other countries. Its portfolio spans air and missile defense systems like Patriot and SM-3, the Tomahawk cruise missile, advanced radars, electro-optical sensors, and directed-energy weapons. In 2026, Raytheon and Composite Energy Technology demonstrated the HADALUS, a 34-foot unmanned undersea vehicle with a carbon fiber skeleton that lets seawater flow through it, covering 2,300 miles on a single energy load.

Raytheon's recent work reflects broader shifts in global security. In August 2026, the company won a $745 million contract for SM-3 Block IIA interceptors, a joint U.S.-Japan program. That same week, RTX reported a record backlog exceeding $200 billion, and its stock surged 43% over the year, driven by heightened missile demand amid geopolitical tensions. The company's role in defense has not been without controversy; in 2019 it paid a $95 million fine for overcharging the Army on Patriot systems, and it has faced criticism over weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. Still, Raytheon remains a linchpin of U.S. and allied defense, with a history of innovation that stretches back a century. [edit]