RTX Raytheon wins billion-dollar contract for F-22 sensors

The US Air Force has contracted with RTX Raytheon to upgrade sensors on the F-22 Raptor aircraft at a cost of US$1 billion.

The sensor upgrade is part of a wider F-22 improvement mission that will require $7.8 billion in investments before 2030. The sensor upgrades are designed to extend the F-22’s service life. The modernisation roadmap for the stealth fighter will also include improved connectivity and weapons, new cryptography, an expanded open architecture and an advanced threat warning receiver to make the aircraft fitter for more years in service, particularly in the Indo-Pacific Command area.

A total of 32 of the US Air Force’s older Block 20 F-22 units are being retired, but the remaining 154 have been scheduled for the upgrade plan.

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The new sensors will form part of a rapid prototyping and fielding process which it has been hoped will carry through into the Next Generation of Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems.

US Air Force Brigadier General Jason Voorheis, the programme executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, explained: “The Raptor team recently conducted six flight test efforts to demo and assess advanced sensors on the F-22 required to complete an ongoing rapid prototyping MTA for the programme.” 

MTA means Middle Tier of Acquisition and is another way of saying the sensors would be rapidly prototyped and fielded.

Quite what the RTX Raytheon contract will actually deliver remains opaque as of the announcement date, although new Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensors for the F-22 were confirmed on the 2025 budget request for the programme. Such IRST sensors would represent an upgrade that the F-22 was initially due to carry, but which were originally dropped from its specification for budgetary reasons.