RTX Corporation

RTX

RTX is a US aerospace and defense company listed on the New York Stock Exchange as RTX. It was formed in 2020 by the merger of Raytheon Company and United Technologies, and renamed from Raytheon Technologies to RTX in 2023. It runs three businesses: Collins Aerospace, which supplies commercial and military aircraft systems; Pratt & Whitney, which builds engines including the F135 for the F-35 and the geared turbofan for narrowbody airliners; and Raytheon, which builds missiles, air and missile defence systems including Patriot, and radars.

The split between commercial aerospace and defense is the defining feature of the company. It is exposed to airline fleet growth and to government missile procurement at the same time, and those two cycles do not move together.

Business and Financial Position

For the second quarter of 2026, RTX reported sales of $24.7 billion, up 14 percent year on year and up 16 percent organically. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.89, up 21 percent. Operating cash flow was $3.5 billion and free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was $2.9 billion.

Backlog reached $289 billion, up 22 percent year on year, split between $170 billion commercial and $119 billion defense. The Raytheon segment reported operating profit of $1,042 million, up 29 percent, which the company attributed to higher volume and favourable mix including Patriot programmes.

RTX raised its 2026 outlook alongside the results, to adjusted sales of $95.0 billion to $96.0 billion from $92.5 billion to $93.5 billion, and organic sales growth of 8 to 9 percent from 5 to 6 percent. Those are company targets, not results.

Why It Matters

Raytheon’s air-defence portfolio puts RTX directly in the counter-drone conversation, though at the expensive end of it. Patriot and the effectors around it were designed for aircraft and ballistic threats, and the economics of firing them at cheap one-way attack drones have become one of the central arguments in Western air defence. RTX has products aimed at that cost gap, including Coyote, but the mismatch is a real strategic problem for the company as much as an opportunity.

The commercial half is the other thing to watch, and it cuts both ways. A $170 billion commercial backlog is a genuine hedge against defense budget cycles. Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan has also been the source of the company’s most costly recent problem: contaminated powder metal used in engine parts made between roughly 2015 and 2021 forced the removal and inspection of about 3,000 engines, parked hundreds of aircraft at a time, and led RTX to take a pre-tax charge of around $3 billion in the third quarter of 2023. Both halves are large enough to move the company on their own.