NEW YORK, Feb 12, 2026, 15:58 ET — Regular session
- RTX picked up roughly 2.3% in afternoon trading, moving higher even as the broader market slipped.
- Raytheon flagged a recent counter-drone test. RTX’s BBN unit, meanwhile, announced it secured a radar-5G spectrum contract.
- A senior finance exec unloaded shares following award-related moves, the filing showed.
RTX Corp shares jumped 2.3% to $201 Thursday afternoon, sidestepping a wider market slump. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF slipped roughly 1.3%. But the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF edged 0.8% higher.
This is notable, considering defense stocks have been among the rare plays still attracting steady buying, thanks to investors favoring names linked to government-driven and rearmament trends. RTX, meanwhile, keeps issuing a drumbeat of program updates—fuel for momentum in stretches between earnings reports.
RTX straddles both commercial aerospace swings—thanks to Pratt & Whitney’s jet engines—and the push and pull of U.S. and allied defense spending, with Raytheon’s missiles and radars in the mix. When trading turns choppy, attention shifts to contract wins and real-time production numbers.
Raytheon, which operates under RTX, announced Wednesday it had tested a recoverable “non-kinetic” variant of its Coyote Block 3 counter-drone technology during a U.S. Army exercise, knocking out several drone swarms. “Coyote provides warfighters a cost-effective defense for individual drones and swarms,” said Tom Laliberty, a Raytheon executive, in the release. PR Newswire
Non-kinetic, put simply, means the interceptor disables its target without using an explosive warhead. Companies argue that’s a safer option for dense settings, with less risk of collateral damage. Counter-UAS describes tech built to take down drones, from small quadcopters up to bigger unmanned aircraft systems.
RTX, in a release out Tuesday, announced its BBN Technologies division landed a contract with the “Department of War (DoW)” and the National Spectrum Consortium. The mission: help protect military radar systems as commercial 5G operations push deeper into the contested 3.1 to 3.45 GHz range. “Lives are put at risk when a radar misses a target,” said BBN principal investigator Chris Vander Valk. PR Newswire
RTX is betting on speed here. Where standard coexistence tools might need 10, 20 minutes—or more—to spot interference and react, the prototype promises to reroute 5G traffic in just seconds. For investors, these workshare deals often look like hints of future, larger contracts, though the initial phases don’t always build into something bigger.
Shares of Lockheed Martin climbed roughly 1.5%, with Northrop Grumman gaining around 2.1%. But General Dynamics slipped about 1.2%. L3Harris edged down as well.
The stock’s surge got another mention in a regulatory filing: RTX Senior Vice President and Controller Amy L. Johnson disclosed several award-linked trades and sold 8,088 shares at $195.03, according to a Form 4 filed Feb. 10.
Still, there’s a catch on the bullish side. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of RTX, continues to grapple with inspections linked to a powder metal flaw impacting certain geared turbofan engines—a headache that’s dragged on for years, stirring up concerns about expenses, supply chain headaches, and grounded jets.
Eyes now shift to whether all the counter-drone buzz actually converts to orders, and if spectrum-sharing projects start pulling in bigger contracts. RTX Chairman and CEO Chris Calio is also on deck, set to speak at Citi’s Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference on Feb. 18.
