$22.9B, seven years, 1,000 a year: Navy turns Raytheon's Tomahawk framework into a contract

The money

The figure is the only hard number the government released. The Navy called it a “landmark $22.9 billion investment” in Acting Secretary Hung Cao’s statement ^[2]. Neither the department nor the Navy gave a contract number, a fixed-price or cost-type structure, a missile count or an amount obligated at award ^[1, 2].

That is unusual for an award this size. The department’s Aug. 17 contract announcement itemizes Navy awards worth far less, such as a $231.5 million Textron modification for two Ship to Shore Connector craft, with the appropriation, the fiscal year and the amount “obligated at time of award” spelled out ^[5]. The Tomahawk deal is absent from that list ^[5].

What the Tomahawk contract covers, according to RTX

RTX’s release is the most specific document. It describes “an unprecedented $22.9 billion contract” under which Raytheon will accelerate production “over the multi-year period,” supporting “the annual production ramp to more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and associated support” for the Navy and allies ^[3]. The release headline sets the term at seven years ^[3]. RTX said it delivered three times as many Tomahawks in the first half of 2026 as in the first half of 2025, and that it will work with “hundreds of small and mid-sized suppliers nationwide” to scale output ^[3].

The starting point is low. Reuters puts current production at about 60 missiles a year, according to Stars and Stripes and The National ^[9, 10]. Getting past 1,000 would mean a roughly seventeenfold increase.

How much has Congress funded for Tomahawk?

The budget numbers show the gap the contract is meant to close. The Washington Examiner reports that the Navy’s fiscal 2027 request seeks $3 billion for 785 Tomahawks, while last year’s budget provided $257 million, enough for 58 ^[8]. A 785-missile request is a little under four-fifths of the 1,000-a-year rate RTX is targeting, and RTX says that rate also serves allies ^[3, 8].

Whatever the structure, each year’s buy still has to be funded in that year’s appropriations bill, which is why the out-year money, more than the $22.9 billion headline, is the figure suppliers will track ^[6, 8].

The programs

The award converts one of the five framework agreements Raytheon and the department announced on Feb. 4 ^[4]. That package covered Tomahawk in its Land Attack and Maritime Strike variants, AMRAAM, SM-3 Block IB, SM-3 Block IIA and SM-6, each for up to seven years ^[4]. The February targets were more than 1,000 Tomahawks a year, at least 1,900 AMRAAMs and more than 500 SM-6s, with many munitions rising to two to four times their existing rates ^[4]. RTX said then that the investments sat inside its 2026 outlook and that a “collaborative funding approach” was meant to protect up-front free cash flow; it gave no dollar figures ^[4]. Production sites named in February were Tucson, Arizona; Huntsville, Alabama; and Andover, Massachusetts ^[4].

The Tomahawk contract follows the same pattern as the Army’s PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement deal, where a framework became a seven-year contract with a large ceiling and the annual money left to Congress (earlier coverage). Three days before the Tomahawk announcement, the department also signed two framework agreements with Boeing and RTX to raise component production for SM-3 Block IB and Block IIA ^[11].

Is the Tomahawk deal a multiyear procurement?

The releases do not say, and the answer matters for how the out-years are protected. Section 804 of the fiscal 2026 NDAA, enacted Dec. 18, 2025, authorizes multiyear contracts beginning in fiscal 2026 for Tomahawk Cruise Missile systems, “including both Tomahawk Cruise Missile system variants,” for “more than one, but not more than seven, program years” ^[6]. The same section lets the department buy through modifications or extensions to existing contracts and makes any payment after fiscal 2026 “subject to the availability of appropriations” ^[6].

It also contains a condition specific to Tomahawk. The Secretary of Defense may not make the multiyear certification for Tomahawk “until the Secretary has provided a certification” for the Family of Affordable Mass Munitions, the Extended-Range Attack Munition, the Enterprise Test Vehicle or ground-launched low-cost cruise missile systems ^[6]. JASSM carries the same condition, and SM-6 is tied to a low-cost hypersonic strike certification ^[6]. None of the Aug. 17 releases mentions such a certification ^{[1, 2, 3]}.

The House-passed fiscal 2027 NDAA, H.R. 8800, would add a second, fresh authority. Section 1839 lists Tomahawk Land Attack Missile and Maritime Strike Tomahawk among 13 munitions families eligible for multiyear contracts of up to seven program years beginning in fiscal 2027, if the agency certifies to the defense committees at least seven days in advance that the deal yields “significant savings” and that the design is stable, among other tests ^[7]. Section 1663 would require at least two solid rocket motor suppliers for Tomahawk and other covered munitions on contracts signed on or after Oct. 1, 2027 ^[7]. Topline Report covered the House vote in July (earlier coverage).

The politics

The administration framed the award as part of its munitions push. “The Department called upon industry to expand munitions production, and RTX has answered that call,” said Michael P. Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment ^[1]. The department said the contract gives industry “the stability required to expand their workforce, increase manufacturing throughput, and fortify supply chains” ^[1]. RTX placed it under the department’s Arsenal of Freedom initiative ^[3]. Raytheon President Phil Jasper called Tomahawk “the Navy’s most important strike weapon” ^[3].

The award is managed by Portfolio Acquisition Executive Munitions, a Navy organization led by Van Hendrey that combines naval weapons programs under one office ^[2].

The backdrop is the war with Iran. The Washington Examiner, citing The Washington Post, reports the Navy fired more than 850 Tomahawks in the war’s first month, against a pre-war stock of about 3,100 estimated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) ^[8]. Stars and Stripes reports CSIS analysts now estimate more than 1,000 have been fired, about a third of the pre-war inventory, and that a CSIS report this month described “unprecedented strain on inventories” ^[9]. Executive branch officials have denied there is a shortage ^[9]. The National reports the conflict began in February ^[10].

No member of Congress was quoted in the official releases ^[1, 2]. If the department uses Section 804, the multiyear certification goes to the congressional defense committees ^[6].

Next milestone

Fiscal 2027 begins Oct. 1, 2026, and the 785-missile request rides on the defense appropriations bill ^[8]. The House and Senate still have to settle a final fiscal 2027 NDAA, including Section 1839’s Tomahawk authority ^[7]. The Navy has not said when it will publish the contract number, the obligated amount or the authority used, and whether the low-cost cruise missile certification required by Section 804 has been made is not on the record ^{[1, 2, 6]}.