Raytheon Wins $271.5 Million Navy Contract for AEGIS Fire Control Gear

The RTX unit will produce AEGIS Weapon System MK 99 equipment and modernization hardware, with options that could lift the deal to $302.5 million. Work runs through July 2032, the Navy said.

First Published: August 3, 2026, 1:24 PM ET

MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS — Raytheon Missiles and Defense, the RTX Corporation unit that builds air and missile defense systems, won a $271.5 million Navy contract to produce AEGIS fire control equipment, as announced on war.gov.

The firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee award covers AEGIS Weapon System Fire Control System MK 99 equipment, AEGIS modernization equipment, and associated engineering support. Options, if exercised, would raise the cumulative value to $302.5 million and extend work through December 2032. The Navy accounts for 97% of the purchase, with Australia at 2% and Japan at 1% under the Foreign Military Sales program, according to war.gov.

The AEGIS Weapon System is an integrated naval combat system that links radar, computers and missiles to detect and destroy incoming threats. Its MK 99 fire control component guides Standard Missile interceptors launched from cruisers and destroyers.Raytheon Missiles and Defense, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, produces the AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar and the Standard Missile family that feed the system, according to wikipedia.org.

The award steers most of the money to New England and the mid-Atlantic. Work will be performed in Andover, Massachusetts, at 56%; Chesapeake, Virginia, at 28%; Marlborough, Massachusetts, at 15%; and Burlington, Massachusetts, at 1%. Contractors and their engineering staffs in those regions stand to benefit, while the sole-source structure limits opportunities for rival suppliers.

The Navy did not open the work to competition. The contract was not competitively procured under 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1), which allows a single source when no other supplier can meet the requirement. That provision reflects Raytheon’s long-held position as the original designer of the AEGIS fire control hardware.

This deal ranks as the 17th contract awarded to Raytheon Missiles and Defense in 2026, lifting the company’s total for the year to $6.24 billion. It stands as the 43rd Department of Defense contract awarded in Massachusetts during 2026. The sum trails the company’s record award of $2.09 billion, and it lands between the 2026 Navy portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9 million and maximum of $8 billion. Eight Department of Defense contracts were announced nationwide on July 29, 2026.

For the average US reader, the contract represents part of the federal spending that sustains shipyard and electronics jobs across Massachusetts and Virginia while funding the sea-based defenses assigned to protect Navy fleets. Allied purchases by Australia and Japan spread part of that cost to partner governments.

This has happened before. AEGIS modernization contracts have flowed to Raytheon and its predecessors for decades, with the Navy repeatedly turning to a single source for fire control upgrades. The pattern reflects the system’s deployment across dozens of cruisers and destroyers that require compatible, continually refreshed hardware.

Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., serves as the contracting activity and holds authority over any option exercises under contract number N00024-26-C-5340. A date for the next decision on those options has not been announced, though the base work is expected to be completed by July 29, 2032.

Raytheon has anchored American electronics defense work in Massachusetts since its founding, and that is not the first time the state has driven the company’s growth. The firm began in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1922 as the American Appliance Company, founded by Vannevar Bush, Laurence K. Marshall and Charles G. Smith, according to wikipedia.org. During World War II, it mass-produced magnetron tubes and shipboard radar for submarine detection, work rooted in Massachusetts laboratories, according to wikipedia.org. That radar heritage seeded the fire control and sensor businesses that carry Raytheon’s Navy work today.

This contract represents the 17th contract awarded to Raytheon Missiles and Defense, in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $6,241,081,190. It is also the 43rd Department of Defense contract awarded in Massachusetts during 2026. While this is not the largest contract ever awarded to Raytheon Missiles and Defense, whose record stands at $2,089,200,000, it is notable within the Navy portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Navy portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9,046,496 and maximum of $8,000,000,000. Overall, this award was announced among 8 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on July 29, 2026.