NEW YORK, Feb 12, 2026, 15:58 ET — Regular session
- RTX shares rose about 2.3% in afternoon trade, outpacing a broader market decline
- Raytheon highlighted a counter-drone test; RTX’s BBN unit said it won a radar-5G spectrum contract
- A filing showed a senior finance executive sold shares after award-related transactions
RTX Corp shares rose 2.3% to $201 in afternoon trading on Thursday, bucking a broader market drop. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF was down about 1.3%, while the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF was up about 0.8%.
The move matters because defense has been one of the few corners drawing steady bids as investors lean toward companies tied to government demand and industrial rearmament themes. RTX has also been putting out a regular stream of program updates, the kind that can keep momentum going between earnings.
RTX, which makes jet engines at Pratt & Whitney and missiles and radars at Raytheon, sits in the overlap between commercial aerospace cycles and U.S. and allied defense budgets. When the tape is shaky, traders tend to focus on contract flow and what can be produced now.
Raytheon, an RTX business, said on Wednesday it demonstrated a recoverable, “non-kinetic” version of its Coyote Block 3 counter-drone system in a U.S. Army exercise, defeating multiple drone swarms. “Coyote provides warfighters a cost-effective defense for individual drones and swarms,” Raytheon executive Tom Laliberty said in the statement. (PR Newswire)
Non-kinetic, in plain terms, means the interceptor is designed to stop a target without relying on an explosive warhead, which companies pitch as a way to limit collateral damage in crowded environments. Counter-UAS refers to systems aimed at defeating unmanned aircraft systems — drones — ranging from small quadcopters to larger platforms.
In a separate company release dated Tuesday, RTX said its BBN Technologies unit had been awarded a contract by the “Department of War (DoW)” with the National Spectrum Consortium to support a program meant to protect national security radars as commercial 5G use expands into the 3.1 to 3.45 GHz band. “Lives are put at risk when a radar misses a target,” BBN principal investigator Chris Vander Valk said. (PR Newswire)
The pitch is speed: RTX said existing coexistence tools can take tens of minutes to detect interference and adjust, while the prototype would aim to shift 5G traffic in seconds. Investors tend to treat these workshare wins as a breadcrumb trail for follow-on contracts, even if early phases do not always scale.
Other defense contractors were mixed on the day. Lockheed Martin was up about 1.5% and Northrop Grumman rose about 2.1%, while General Dynamics fell about 1.2% and L3Harris was down slightly.
A regulatory filing added a reminder of the stock’s run: a Form 4 filed on Feb. 10 showed RTX Senior Vice President and Controller Amy L. Johnson reported multiple award-related transactions and sold 8,088 shares at $195.03. (SEC)
But the upside case still has a familiar snag. RTX’s Pratt & Whitney has been working through inspections tied to a powder metal defect affecting some geared turbofan engines, a multi-year issue that has periodically raised worries about costs, supply chain strain and aircraft downtime. (Reuters)
Next up, traders will be watching for signs that the counter-drone headlines translate into orders and whether the spectrum-sharing work expands into larger programs. Investors will also focus on RTX Chairman and CEO Chris Calio’s scheduled appearance at Citi’s Global Industrial Tech and Mobility Conference on Feb. 18. (Rtx)
