International customers — primarily NATO allies, Gulf Cooperation Council nations, and Indo-Pacific partners — represent a growing share of revenue, driven by geopolitical tensions and U.S. Foreign military sales (FMS) programs. The growth was driven primarily by strong commercial aftermarket demand at Collins Aerospace, continued defense revenue expansion at Raytheon, and recovering GTF engine deliveries at Pratt & Whitney despite the inspection program headwinds. Commercial backlog across Collins and Pratt & Whitney reached record levels as airlines accelerated fleet renewal orders. RTX's capital expenditure requirements are substantial — the company invests approximately $2-2.5 billion annually in manufacturing capacity and R&D facilities — and the GTF inspection program required significant cash outlays for fleet support, engine removals, and customer compensation. RTX initially estimated approximately 1,200 engines would need accelerated shop visits, but subsequent analysis expanded the scope significantly. This investment sustains engineering capabilities in domains — hypersonics, directed energy, advanced radar signal processing, quantum sensing — that require decades of institutional knowledge and cleared facility infrastructure to develop. RTX's installed base of commercial aircraft engines, avionics systems, and defense electronics generates a recurring aftermarket revenue stream that grows organically as the global fleet expands. This compounding aftermarket dynamic means RTX's revenue base expands even without winning new platform competitions, simply through the continued operation of equipment already in service. The company holds thousands of classified contracts and facility clearances that represent years of investment and compliance history — a regulatory moat that new entrants cannot replicate without decades of relationship building with U.S. National security agencies. RTX's growth strategy is built around five mutually reinforcing pillars that reflect both the company's industrial heritage and its adaptation to the evolving demands of 21st-century defense and aviation. The most immediate growth imperative is converting the massive GTF backlog — more than 10,000 engine orders — into delivered revenue while successfully executing the powder metal inspection program. This requires expanded manufacturing capacity at facilities in Middletown, Connecticut; Longueuil, Canada; and Columbus, Georgia, as well as qualification of additional supply chain capacity. RTX has announced plans to expand Patriot missile production, increase AMRAAM production rates, and invest in additional Tomahawk manufacturing capacity. The company has also pursued government-funded facility investments and long-lead material procurements to reduce the supply chain constraints that currently limit its production ramp. **International Defense Growth** International defense sales represent the highest-growth segment within Raytheon, as NATO allies and Indo-Pacific partners accelerate their defense modernization programs. RTX has established in-country manufacturing partnerships in Poland, Japan, and Australia that position it for long-term industrial base agreements alongside equipment sales, a model that foreign governments increasingly demand as a condition of large defense contracts. RTX is investing in hypersonic weapons systems, directed energy (laser) weapons, advanced radar technologies based on GaN (gallium nitride) semiconductor arrays, and AI-enabled command-and-control systems. On the defense side, NATO's renewed commitment to 2 percent GDP defense spending targets, Japan's historic defense budget expansion (targeting 2 percent of GDP by 2027, up from approximately 1 percent), and the broader Indo-Pacific military buildup create an extended multi-year demand environment for Raytheon's missiles, radars, and air defense systems. The story of RTX Corporation begins not in 2020, when the company acquired its current name, but in the early decades of the twentieth century, when American aviation and defense electronics were still nascent industries taking their first tentative steps.