How do Raytheon-Israel contract values compare to other defense contractors doing business with Israel?
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Executive summary
Raytheon-Rafael Protection Systems (R2S), a joint venture of Raytheon (RTX) and Israel’s Rafael, was awarded a $1.25 billion direct commercial contract to produce Tamir interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome, including missile kits and test equipment [1] [2]. Available sources do not provide a comprehensive list of other contractors’ contract values with Israel for direct comparison; reporting focuses on this R2S award and Raytheon/RTX’s broader U.S. missile-business contracts [3] [4].
1. Big number, clear stake: what the $1.25B deal actually covers
Raytheon’s R2S joint venture won a $1.25 billion Tamir production contract that includes missiles, missile kits and test equipment and marks the venture’s first production award; the facility in East Camden, Arkansas, was set up specifically to accelerate serial production for the Israel Missile Defense Organization [1] [2] [5]. Raytheon and Rafael frame the contract as both a domestic U.S. production milestone and a capacity boost for Israel’s Iron Dome, with R2S the prime implementer [2] [6].
2. How this award fits into Raytheon/RTX’s recent defense business with Israel and the U.S.
The $1.25 billion Tamir contract is a high-profile commercial sales deal for R2S; Reuters and company releases place it among Raytheon’s larger missile-related activities, alongside other substantial U.S. missile contracts cited for RTX businesses — for example, a reported $2.1 billion Pentagon contract modification for Standard Missile-3 Block support that expanded that program’s value above $3.3 billion [3] [4]. That context shows the Tamir award is significant but sits alongside other multi-billion-dollar missile programs handled by RTX [3] [4].
3. Comparison limits: what the sources do and do not provide
None of the supplied reporting lists other named defense contractors’ specific contract values with Israel for the same period, so direct apples-to-apples rankings or totals are not available in current sources; available sources do not mention, for example, precise recent contract values for Lockheed Martin, Elbit, or Israel Aerospace Industries in comparable procurement lines (not found in current reporting). The materials focus narrowly on R2S’s $1.25 billion award and on Raytheon/RTX’s own portfolio rather than a market-wide ledger [1] [3] [4].
4. What can be inferred cautiously from reporting about relative scale
Given the persistent coverage of Raytheon/RTX’s multi-billion-dollar missile contracts in the U.S. (e.g., the $2.1 billion SM-3 modification) and the explicit $1.25 billion Tamir order, Raytheon’s role in missile-defense supply lines is clearly large relative to single-program awards reported here; however, without source-provided numbers for other suppliers to Israel, you can only say Raytheon/R2S’s award is a major contract in absolute terms, not conclusively the largest among all vendors to Israel [4] [1].
5. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in the reporting
Company releases and trade outlets present the award as a production and industrial win — stressing the new Arkansas plant, U.S. jobs and the “first production contract” milestone [2] [6]. Industry and financial press (Reuters, Investing.com) frame the story as material to RTX shareholders and U.S. industrial base arguments [3] [7]. This conflation of commercial, strategic and PR goals is explicit in PRNewswire and company material; those sources have an implicit agenda to highlight economic and corporate achievements [2] [8].
6. What to watch next — data gaps that matter
To judge how R2S’s $1.25 billion ranks among all defense suppliers to Israel, reporters should seek: (a) Israeli Ministry of Defense procurement disclosures or IMDO contract lists; (b) comparable commercial-sale announcements from Elbit, IAI and Lockheed Martin; and (c) any U.S. foreign military sales tied to Israel that include contractor-specific values. Available sources here do not provide those comparative datasets, so any ranking beyond “major” would be unsupported by the current reporting (not found in current reporting) [1].
7. Bottom line for readers
The R2S $1.25 billion Tamir contract is a sizeable, well-documented award that strengthens Raytheon/Rafael’s manufacturing footprint for Iron Dome interceptors and figures prominently alongside RTX’s other large missile-related business [1] [4]. But current reporting supplied here stops short of supplying the cross-company contract values needed to definitively compare Raytheon/R2S to all other defense contractors doing business with Israel (not found in current reporting).