The Pentagon has been shooting missiles faster than it can buy them, and it has decided to fix that with a very large cheque. On 28 September 2026, RTX’s Raytheon announced a multiyear contract worth up to $20.7 billion for the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the West’s standard beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile for three decades.
The award covers five years with two option years. Defense News reports it was signed on 25 September and forms part of the Pentagon’s “Arsenal of Freedom” push to rebuild munitions stockpiles that the war with Iran has drained. For scale: the previous record AMRAAM contract, in July 2025, was worth $3.5 billion.
There is a catch. According to Reuters, Congress has not yet fully funded the deal, so the headline figure is a ceiling, not money in the bank.
Quick Facts
- Contract: AIM-120 AMRAAM multiyear production, up to $20.7 billion
- Contractor: RTX’s Raytheon, Tucson, Arizona
- Announced: 28 September 2026 (awarded 25 September)
- Term: Five years plus two option years
- Customers: US Air Force, US Navy and international partners
- Production goal: At least 1,900 missiles a year, under a February 2026 framework
- Previous record: $3.5 billion, July 2025
What the money buys
The contract itself does not publish quantities or annual rates. What we do know is the target: in February 2026, RTX and the Pentagon agreed a framework to push AMRAAM production to at least 1,900 missiles a year. Raytheon says it nearly doubled output in 2025 compared with 2024, and it is working with hundreds of smaller suppliers to keep climbing.
The buy is a joint one. The US Air Force and Navy are ordering alongside foreign military sales customers, which matters because AMRAAM is not just an air-to-air weapon any more. It is also the interceptor for the NASAMS ground-based air defence system, which is now widely used in Ukraine and across Europe.
A 35-year-old missile that keeps getting better
AMRAAM entered service in 1991 and scored its first combat kill in December 1992, when a US Air Force F-16 shot down an Iraqi MiG-25 over southern Iraq. Since then it has been steadily upgraded through the AIM-120B, C and D models. Raytheon says it is now fielded by 44 countries on 14 platforms, and that it has completed more than 7,000 successful live firings.
It is still the standard long-range missile for the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, F-22 and F-35, among many others. A successor, the AIM-260 JATM, is coming, but it will be years before it replaces AMRAAM across the fleet. Until then, the Pentagon needs a lot of the old one.
Raytheon president Phil Jasper put it simply: AMRAAM, he said, remains the world’s most trusted, combat-proven air dominance weapon. The US government has just bet as much as $20.7 billion that he is right.
How the AIM-120 AMRAAM works, from launch to terminal guidance.
Sources: RTX/Raytheon press release (28 September 2026), Defense News, Air & Space Forces Magazine, Breaking Defense, Reuters
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