Arsenal of Freedom: Raytheon Awarded $20.7 Billion Contract for AMRAAM Missiles

The American company Raytheon RTX has been awarded a contract worth up to $20.7 billion to produce AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles.

This was reported by Raytheon.

The contract is for five years and includes an option to extend it for an additional two years. Under the agreement, Raytheon is to increase annual production to at least 1,900 missiles.

The agreement is part of the U.S. Arsenal of Freedom program, aimed at a long-term increase in the production of these missiles.

Back in Februaryi 2026, Raytheon and the U.S. Department of Defense signed framework agreements to increase production of several types of missiles at once — AMRAAM, Tomahawk, SM-3 Block IB/IIA, and SM-6.

AMRAAM

The AIM-120 AMRAAM is a medium-range air-to-air guided missile equipped with an active radar homing seeker.

For guidance, the missile uses an inertial navigation system, trajectory correction during the cruise phase, and its own active radar seeker during the terminal intercept phase.

According to Raytheon, modern fifth-generation AMRAAM missiles feature advanced processors, software-updatable capabilities, and improved protection against electronic warfare systems.

Today, missiles from this family are in service with 44 countries and integrated with 14 air and ground platforms. In total, more than 7,000 successful AMRAAM launches have been conducted during testing and combat operations.

In addition to fighter jets, AMRAAMs are used as anti-aircraft guided missiles as part of the NASAMS ground-based air defense system. Specifically, AMRAAMs and AIM-9Xs are included in the list of weapons for this system.

Separately, in April 2026, the company was awarded a contract worth up to $234.8 million to prepare the long-range AMRAAM-ER variant for full-scale production. Work on this program is scheduled to continue through April 2030.

Last April, Raytheon CEO Phil Jasper announced a doubling of AIM-120 production.