Raytheon Lands $729 Million Counter-Drone Contract

The market for shooting drones out of the sky is booming. Raytheon, an RTX company, has secured $729 million in contracts to supply components of its counter-drone system to the US Army, Qatar, and Jordan. The deal marks the first international sales of two key technologies in Raytheon's counter-drone arsenal.

The contracts cover Raytheon's Low, slow, small, uncrewed aircraft Integrated Defeat System, known as LIDS. The system pairs radar and detection technologies with interceptors designed to neutralize hostile drones before they reach their targets. It combines two core products: the Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor (KuRFS) for detecting and tracking threats across a 360-degree field of view, and the Coyote interceptor for engaging individual drones and coordinated swarms.

The Coyote family includes both kinetic and non-kinetic effectors, giving operators multiple ways to counter aerial threats. Raytheon says the system's interceptors have already logged hundreds of combat intercepts, giving the company a battlefield track record as militaries worldwide scramble for better drone defenses.

The new contracts include both fixed-site and mobile LIDS configurations, allowing customers to deploy counter-drone defenses in different operational environments. The international expansion of KuRFS and Coyote is notable: both have been central to the US Army's LIDS program, but these contracts represent their first export sales.

RTX is investing in expanded manufacturing capacity and upgrades to its Coyote interceptors. Planned improvements include faster launch times, higher speeds, and greater operating range at higher altitudes. The production push matters because counter-drone systems need to handle more than occasional incursions, particularly when adversaries deploy multiple low-cost drones in coordinated attacks.

For Raytheon, the $729 million award signals a growing international market for systems designed to detect, track, and defeat drones. The company is now working to scale a combat-tested solution for a wider customer base, and the queue is getting longer.