Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with United Technologies Corporation to form Raytheon Technologies,[3] which changed its name to RTX Corporation in July 2023.
Raytheon was established in 1922, reincorporated in 1928, and adopted the Raytheon Company name in 1959. More than 90% of Raytheon's revenues were obtained from military contracts and by 2012, it was the fifth-largest military contractor in the world.[4] In 2015, it had become the third-largest defense contractor in the United States, by defense revenue.[5] It was the world's largest producer of guided missiles, and was involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007.[6] Bloomberg noted (in 2018) that the company held 67,000 employees,[7] worldwide, and annual revenues of about US$ 25.35 billion, in 2018.
Raytheon has moved its headquarters among various Massachusetts locations: Cambridge from 1922 to 1928; Newton until 1941; Waltham until 1961; Lexington until 2003; and then Waltham again through the present day.[8]
History
Early years
In 1922, Vannevar Bush, scientist and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with engineer and physicist Laurence K. Marshall, and scientist Charles G. Smith, founded the American Appliance Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[9] Its focus, which was originally on new refrigeration technology, soon shifted to electronics. The company's first product was a gaseous (helium) voltage-regulator tube that was based on Charles Smith's earlier astronomical research of the star Zeta Puppis.[10] The electron tube was named Raytheon (a compound of Old French and Greek meaning 'light from the gods')[11] and was used in a battery eliminator, a type of radio-receiver power supply that plugged into the power grid in place of large
Finances
For the fiscal year 2017, Raytheon reported earnings of US$2.024 billion, with an annual revenue of US$25.348 billion, an increase of 5.1% over the previous fiscal cycle. Raytheon's shares traded at over $164 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$51.7 billion in November 2018.[43]
Company structure
Businesses
Raytheon is composed of five major business divisions:[44]
Raytheon's businesses are supported by several dedicated international operations including: Raytheon Australia; Raytheon Canada Limited; operations in Japan; Raytheon Microelectronics in Spain; Raytheon UK (formerly Raytheon Systems Limited); and ThalesRaytheonSystems, France.
- Integrated Defense Systems—based in Tewksbury, Massachusetts; Ralph Acaba, President
- Intelligence, Information and Services—based in Dulles, Virginia; Dave Wajsgras, President
- Missile Systems—based in Tucson, Arizona; Wesley Kremer, President
- Space and Airborne Systems—based in McKinney, Texas; Roy Azevedo, President
Products and services
Overview
Raytheon provides electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services.
Raytheon's electronics and defense-systems units produce air-, sea-, and land-launched missiles, aircraft radar systems, weapons sights and targeting systems, communication and battle-management systems, and satellite components.
Air traffic control systems
- FIRSTplus Air Traffic Control Simulator
- AutoTrac III ATM System
- STARS
Radars and sensors
Raytheon is a developer and manufacturer of radars (including AESAs), electro-optical sensors, and other advanced electronics systems for airborne, naval and ground based military applications. Examples include:
Environmental record
Two lawsuits were filed against a Raytheon Company plant in St. Petersburg, Florida in April 2008, accusing the company of allowing toxic waste into the groundwater for fifteen years.[53] Raytheon was given until the end of the month to independently test whether or not the groundwater that originated from its area was contaminated. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the groundwater contained carcinogenic contaminants, including trichloroethylene, 1,4-dioxane, and vinyl chloride.[54] The DEP also reported that the cloudy groundwater contained other toxins such as lead and toluene.[53]
In 1995, Raytheon acquired Dallas-based E-Systems, including a site in St. Petersburg, Florida, In November 1991, prior to Raytheon's acquisition, contamination had been discovered at the E-Systems site. Soil and groundwater had been contaminated with the volatile organic compounds trichloroethylene and 1,4-Dioxane. In 2005, groundwater monitoring indicated polluted groundwater was moving into areas outside the site.[55]
Criminal and civil settlements
On October 16, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that as a result of a whistle-blower instigated DOJ investigation, the Raytheon subsidiary of RTX was entering a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) over "a major... scheme" to defraud the U.S. government over the period of 2009 to 2020, and agreeing to pay over $950M in penalties. The agreement ended a criminal investigation in connection with accusations of defective pricing (overcharging on government contracts), foreign bribery, and schemes related to export controls. The penalties included $574 million to resolve their criminal civil liability—of which $428 million is a False Claims Act settlement "for knowingly failing to provide truthful certified cost and pricing data during negotiations on numerous government contracts" over the period in question, "in violation of the Truth in Negotiations Act"—and then a further $147 million as a criminal monetary penalty, and $111 million in victim compensation.[60][61][62]
See also
- Tactical Control System
- Top 100 US Federal Contractors – $16.1 billion in FY2009
External links
- Raytheon Company Semiconductor Division Files Kept to Monitor the Electronics Industry, 1965–1986 (call number M0661; 11.5 linear ft.) are housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries
- Direct political contributions
References
- Raytheon Company 2017 Annual Report (Form 10-K) sec.gov, United States Securities and Exchange Commission, January 2018, retrieved April 4, 2018^
- Archived copy retrieved January 4, 2015^
- Tomi Kilgore. Raytheon Technologies' stock, formerly United Technologies, starts trading in