Raytheon Wins $22.9 Billion Contract to Boost Tomahawk Missile Production
The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon, an RTX business, a $22.9 billion seven-year contract to sharply boost Tomahawk cruise missile production. The deal aims to push annual output from roughly 60 missiles to more than 1,000 a year.
At a Glance
- Contract value: $22.9 billion
- Duration: seven years
- Target annual production: 1,000+ missiles (up from ~60)
- Contractor: Raytheon (an RTX business)
- Customer: U.S. Navy
- Basis: framework agreement signed in February 2026
- Role: long-range precision-strike weapon launched from ships and submarines
Background
The deal, formalized on August 17, 2026, firms up the framework agreement the U.S. military and Raytheon signed in February. Under the contract, Raytheon will invest in expanding its workforce, shortening production timelines, and stabilizing its supply chain. By the end of the seven-year period, annual production capacity is expected to exceed 1,000 missiles — more than a tenfold increase from the current rate of around 60 per year.
Tomahawk, a mainstay of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet and submarine force, provides long-range precision-strike capability against land targets from ships and submarines. The contract comes as the U.S. military works to rebuild depleted stocks of high-tech weaponry, following years of rising operational consumption and heightened geopolitical tensions that have underscored the need to expand Western cruise-missile production capacity.
Analysts note that a production increase of this scale will generate significant work for subcontractors throughout the supply chain and could also accelerate Tomahawk delivery timelines for U.S. allies.
What It Means for Türkiye
This large-scale capacity expansion in Tomahawk production directly affects the supply balance of long-range precision-strike weapons within NATO. Türkiye’s own long-range strike programs — Roketsan’s GEZGİN cruise missile and the TAYFUN ballistic missile — are advancing under a similar logic of scaling production capacity, and the U.S. case offers a reference point for how critical workforce and supply-chain planning become during the transition to serial production. The expanded Tomahawk capacity across allied inventories also indirectly reinforces NATO’s deterrence architecture in terms of munitions standardization and joint exercise planning.
FAQ
When was the contract signed?
The deal was formalized on August 17, 2026, building on a framework agreement signed in February 2026.
How much will production increase?
Annual production is targeted to rise from roughly 60 missiles to more than 1,000.
Where will the funding go?
It will be directed toward workforce expansion, shortening production timelines, and stabilizing the supply chain.
Sources
- Defense News, “US awards Raytheon $22.9 billion deal to boost Tomahawk output”, August 17, 2026
- RTX, “RTX’s Raytheon awarded seven-year contract for Tomahawk cruise missiles”, August 17, 2026
- Breaking Defense, “Raytheon gets massive $23B contract to boost Tomahawk production”, August 2026
