Terms of the $24.4 billion agreement
The U.S. Navy and RTX subsidiary Raytheon have signed a five‑year deal worth $24.4 billion intended to “accelerate” production of the Standard Missile‑6 (SM‑6), the Pentagon announced. The contract includes two additional option years beyond the initial five. The Pentagon and the company did not disclose how many SM‑6 missiles are covered by the agreement.
What the SM‑6 is built to do
The Pentagon described the SM‑6 in the announcement as “a Navy missile used to strike an array of targets including aircraft, ballistic missiles and maritime vessels.” The deal is explicitly framed as part of broader efforts to bolster critical munition production lines and to refill stockpiles for the weapon.
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See what we buildHow this fits with recent Raytheon awards
The Pentagon linked the SM‑6 agreement with other recent, large-scale awards to Raytheon as part of a pattern intended to bring predictability to the defense supply chain. In mid‑August, the Navy awarded Raytheon a $22.9 billion contract to ramp up production of the Tomahawk cruise missile to 1,000 rounds a year. Earlier in the same week as the SM‑6 announcement, the Pentagon and Raytheon signed a deal worth up to nearly $20.7 billion for production of the Advanced Medium‑Range Air‑to‑Air Missile (AMRAAM). In February, the Pentagon and Raytheon had signed a framework agreement designed to pave a path ahead for a multi‑year deal and production increase for the SM‑6 program.
Pentagon goals: workforce, throughput and supply chains
The department framed the agreement as a tool to accelerate production, increase manufacturing throughput and realize cost savings “across the defense industrial base.” The Pentagon further said that pairing this SM‑6 award with the Tomahawk weapon system award provides “the defense industry with the long‑term predictability needed to expand workforce capacity and secure critical supply chains.” Those are the explicit objectives the department attached to the award in its announcement.
What this means for the Navy, Raytheon, and the defense industrial base
- Navy: The deal is intended to speed the replenishment and expansion of SM‑6 stocks — a munition the department identified as capable against aircraft, ballistic missiles and maritime vessels — although the Navy and Pentagon did not disclose quantities tied to the award.
- RTX subsidiary Raytheon: The contract secures a multi‑year production ramp for a key Navy missile line and aligns with the firm’s near‑term work beyond the Tomahawk and AMRAAM awards; the company also did not disclose missile counts in its announcement.
- Defense industrial base and workforce: The Pentagon explicitly tied the award to objectives of increasing manufacturing throughput, reducing costs, expanding workforce capacity and securing supply chains — framing the contract as intended to provide the long‑term predictability industry leaders have requested.
The SM‑6 award, taken alongside the Tomahawk and AMRAAM contracts, represents a concentrated push to expand munition production through multi‑year commitments to a single prime contractor. The public record for this announcement leaves an unavoidable, specific unanswered point — the Pentagon and Raytheon did not state how many SM‑6 missiles the $24.4 billion arrangement will produce — but the department made clear that the purpose of the award is to accelerate production, increase throughput and stabilize costs and supply chains across the defense industrial base.
