<candidate>The Navy Needs SPY-6 Radars on 50 Ships. Raytheon Has Them on 12 — and Its Rhode Island Factory Is Where the Catch-Up Happens.</candidate>

A Billion-Dollar Radar Program Sets Off a Hiring Chain Reaction

On June 3, 2026, the U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon a $515 million contract for the SPY-6 family of radars, a sole-source follow-on to a $536 million Integration and Production Support contract awarded in June 2025, according to RTX. The consecutive-year awards are accelerating production and integration of what the Navy calls its most advanced maritime radar onto more than 50 ships over the next decade.

SPY-6 is not a single radar but a family of four variants — (V)1 through (V)4 — built from modular 2'×2'×2' antenna blocks called Radar Modular Assemblies. The (V)1, designed for DDG 51 Flight III destroyers, packs 37 RMAs per array face across four faces. The (V)4, meant to backfit older Flight IIA destroyers, uses 24. All variants share common hardware and software, and all simultaneously track ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic threats, hostile aircraft, and surface ships.

Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon, said the contract reflects "over a decade of demonstrated success at sea" and that the company expects to double SPY-6 output by 2028, backed by an $800 million investment to modernize radar manufacturing facilities. As of the June 2026 award, SPY-6 was aboard two commissioned Navy ships and installed on 11 others in various stages of testing.

The work is centered at Raytheon's Radar Development Facility in Andover, Massachusetts — a 30,000-square-foot site that includes a gallium nitride foundry producing the semiconductors essential to SPY-6. But the production ramp has direct consequences for Raytheon's Portsmouth, Rhode Island facility, where the company is investing $100 million to expand radar testing and interceptor production capacity.

Raytheon's own press materials confirm the company is "actively hiring engineers across multiple disciplines to support this critical program." The $515 million contract funds training, engineering services, ship installation, integration, testing, and software upgrades through May 2027. The Foreign Military Sales dimension adds further demand: Germany's planned F127 frigates will carry SPY-6, and the contract leaves the door open for allied navies to join.

Inside the $100M Rhode Island Bet

On June 8, 2026, Raytheon announced a $100 million expansion of its Portsmouth, Rhode Island facility, a project expected to create approximately 150 high-tech jobs in the state. The investment will accelerate testing of the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) radar and boost production of Patriot GEM-T subcomponents.

The announcement came eight months after the company broke ground on a $53 million, 23,000-square-foot expansion of its Radar Production Facility in Andover, Massachusetts. Together, the two investments form a coordinated manufacturing buildout across two states, timed to the LTAMDS production ramp.

Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon, said the expansion would "ensure the U.S. Army and our international partners receive these systems as quickly as possible."

The Portsmouth campus supports undersea technology, combat systems, and radars, and is part of RTX's broader Rhode Island footprint of more than 850 employees across its business units, a presence stretching back over 60 years.

Raytheon is under contract for multiple LTAMDS radars for the U.S. Army and Poland. The program recently completed its ninth successful flight test, using the radar's multiple arrays to track and intercept a surrogate target.

The Defense Post reported that Raytheon's investment is part of a broader trend of defense contractors expanding U.S. production facilities to meet rising military demand, citing recent investments from L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems, and others.

What Raytheon Is Actually Hiring For

Raytheon's Portsmouth campus is hiring across a wide range of engineering and technical disciplines. A snapshot of open roles on LinkedIn shows 546 Raytheon positions in Rhode Island, with dozens tied to radar systems, naval integration, and manufacturing.

Systems engineering dominates the hiring list. Raytheon has posted multiple openings for Systems Engineer I, II, and Senior levels in Portsmouth, all onsite. One listing (Engineer II Naval Radar & Ocean Systems Integration) spells out the work: requirements development, hardware and software integration, test planning and execution, and interface evaluation in support of "system sell-off." The role requires a STEM degree, at least two years of experience, and an active or interim Secret security clearance. The listed salary range is $68,900 to $131,100. The job description notes that the Portsmouth team supports programs across "naval undersea and surface domains, including sensor systems, mine countermeasures, submarines, torpedoes, combat systems, and ship architecture/integration."

Electrical and radar-specific roles form the next layer. Open positions include Senior Electrical Engineer, Electrical Engineer I and II, Sr Radar Processing & Network System Design Electrical Engineer, and Senior Multi-Disciplined Electrical Engineer — all in Portsmouth. A Principal Systems Engineer – Radar Systems Development and Integration role and its senior counterpart round out the radar-specific engineering track.

Mechanical and manufacturing engineering is scaling in parallel. The hiring list includes Mechanical Engineer I, II, and Senior levels, a Principal Mechanical Engineer for design, a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, and a Sr Mechanical Design Engineer. Reliability engineering is also represented, with both a Principal Reliability Engineer and a Senior Reliability Engineer posted in Portsmouth.

Program management and integration leadership roles round out the picture. Raytheon is hiring an Associate Director for Ship Systems Integration, an Evolved SeaSparrow Missile Launcher & System Integration Integrated Product Team Lead, and a Digital/IT Program Management Lead — all onsite in Portsmouth.

Nearly all of these roles are onsite at the Portsmouth facility, which spans 200,000 square feet of office space and 90,000 square feet of lab space, with a classified radar test pad, a deep-water test tank, and a site-owned surface fleet for in-field testing.

Why the Navy Can't Afford to Wait

The Navy has made the SPY-6 radar family the backbone of its surface fleet modernization. The AN/SPY-6 is the Navy's first scalable radar system, built on a modular architecture that lets the service configure different array sizes across seven ship classes, from Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers down to frigates and amphibious vessels.

The urgency comes from where the program sits on its production curve. SPY-6 is currently operational aboard two commissioned Navy ships, with the Flight III destroyer USS Jack H. Lucas among them. Another 11 vessels have the radar installed and are in various stages of testing and integration. Those numbers are modest against the Navy's stated goal: deploying SPY-6 variants across more than 50 ships over the coming decade.

The June 2026 contract modification accelerates exactly that ramp. It covers upgrades for Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with the SPY-6(V)4 variant, extending next-generation radar capability to older hulls that would otherwise rely on legacy SPY-1 arrays. The award exercises an option under a June 2025 integration and production support contract that itself carried options potentially worth $2.89 billion through 2030. A separate $677 million modification in 2024 had already pushed total procured systems to 38 at that point, RTX reported.

Raytheon has invested approximately $800 million in modernizing its radar manufacturing infrastructure, including the Andover gallium nitride semiconductor foundry. The company expects that investment to double SPY-6 output by 2028. GaN technology is what gives SPY-6 its performance edge (reported to be roughly 30 times the sensitivity of the SPY-1 it replaces) but it also demands specialized production and integration expertise that takes time to build in the workforce.

The international dimension adds another layer of demand. Germany has selected the SPY-6(V)1 for its future F127-class frigates, marking the first international adoption of the system. The June 2026 contract allocates roughly 26 percent of its value to Foreign Military Sales, with the structure allowing additional allied nations to join.

Rhode Island's Defense-Tech Corridor Takes Shape

Raytheon's $100 million Portsmouth expansion didn't land in a vacuum. RTX businesses have operated in Rhode Island for more than 60 years, and the company now employs over 850 people in the state. The 150 high-tech jobs tied to the new investment add to a base that was already one of the densest concentrations of defense-electronics engineering talent in New England.

The Portsmouth campus itself spans radar development, combat systems, and undersea technology — three domains that require overlapping skill sets in RF engineering, systems integration, and advanced manufacturing. That breadth matters. It means the workforce pipeline feeding Raytheon's SPY-6 and LTAMDS programs draws from a local labor pool that already understands classified defense production, ITAR compliance, and the testing standards the military demands.

The timing reinforces the pattern. This announcement comes eight months after Raytheon broke ground on the Andover expansion, a sign that the company is building a regional manufacturing corridor stretching across southern New England, with Rhode Island as a hub for air and missile defense production.

For defense-electronics engineers weighing relocation, the signal is clear: Rhode Island is where the work is concentrating. And with the Navy's SPY-6 contract and the Army's LTAMDS program both ramping simultaneously, the demand is already translating into open requisitions.

What the Salary Data Reveals

Raytheon's open roles in Rhode Island reflect a tight talent market for defense-electronics engineers. That same Engineer II role carries a posted range of $68,900 to $131,100. Senior and principal-level radar and RF positions at the Portsmouth campus sit higher, consistent with the premium that cleared defense work commands in New England.

Northrop Grumman's recent postings reinforce the pattern. On Zero G Talent's board, Northrop added 28 roles in the past week alone, including a Principal/Sr. Principal Software Engineer position in El Segundo, California, listed at $114,000–$171,000 per year.

What makes this cycle different from past defense hiring spikes is the gallium nitride foundry component. Raytheon's Andover site includes an on-site GaN semiconductor fabrication line producing the transmit-receive modules at the heart of every SPY-6 array. Engineers who understand GaN device physics, thermal management at the module level, and high-power microwave design are scarce, and the posted ranges for senior RF roles reflect that scarcity.

The compensation data also reveals where Raytheon is feeling the most pressure. Entry-level and mid-career postings for engineering technicians and associate-level systems engineers show tighter bands, suggesting the company expects to fill those roles from the existing cleared labor pool. Senior positions, by contrast, carry wider ranges, which typically means hiring managers have room to negotiate for candidates who bring niche expertise.

Every dollar posted on these job boards maps back to a production line that needs to deliver upgraded Flight IIA destroyer radars on a Navy timeline. When the contract's value is $515 million and the foundry's output directly determines delivery cadence, salary is not just a recruitment tool — it is a schedule input.

How the Other Primes Stack Up

Raytheon's Rhode Island hiring push doesn't exist in a vacuum. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are running their own recruiting surges for radar and defense-electronics talent, but the scale and focus differ in ways that reveal where the market pressure is most intense.

Lockheed Martin's careers site lists 227 open positions that include "radar" in the job title, spread across Moorestown and Camden, New Jersey; Liverpool, New York; Palmdale, California; and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. That spans senior radar engineers, radar signal processing specialists, and system architects posted in the first half of 2026 alone. The breadth reflects Lockheed's portfolio across airborne radar, ballistic missile defense, and classified programs.

Northrop Grumman doesn't break out radar roles as cleanly on its careers page, but its overall hiring footprint is large. The company says it employs roughly 100,000 people and lists openings across engineering, manufacturing, cyber, and space. Zero G Talent's board data shows 28 Northrop Grumman roles added in the past week, with compensation ranging from $26.92/hour for a supply chain coordinator in El Segundo, California, to $114,000–$171,000 annually for a senior software assurance engineer.

What sets Raytheon's situation apart is concentration. Lockheed's radar hiring is distributed across at least five states. Northrop's defense-electronics recruitment is embedded within a broader 100,000-person workforce. Raytheon, by contrast, is funneling a large share of its SPY-6-specific engineering demand into a single facility in Rhode Island, backed by a $100 million capital investment. That geographic and programmatic focus means the hiring pressure in Rhode Island is sharper and harder to absorb quietly through lateral transfers or remote work.

The wider industry context supports the urgency. Military radar procurement pipelines are prioritizing advanced air-and-missile defense systems and multi-mission radar solutions, driven by growing geopolitical tensions. The aerospace and defense sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with AI and digital sustainment adding to already rising demand. Every prime is competing for the same pool of cleared electrical engineers, RF specialists, and systems integrators.

The talent war isn't evenly distributed, though. Raytheon's SPY-6 contract is a single, defined production program with a known delivery schedule — the Navy needs those radars on DDG-51 Flight III destroyers now. Lockheed's radar work is spread across multiple platforms at different stages. That makes Raytheon's Rhode Island hiring surge more acute and more visible: a $515 million contract, one facility, and a specific list of roles that need filling on a timeline the Navy set.

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