Raytheon partners with German company to boost Stinger missile production

Raytheon — a division of Virginia-based defense giant RTX Corp., and one of Arizona’s largest defense contractors — announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Diehl Defense, which is headquartered in Uberlingen, Germany.

Under the agreement, Diehl will take on production work of Stinger missiles as part of its growth plan and to increase global capacity of the system.

The Stinger missile is a lightweight, combat-proven and self-contained air defense system that ground troops can use against cruise missiles and aircraft. One variant is used on Apache helicopters in air-to-air combat.

The weapon is used by all four branches of the U.S. military and by multiple foreign partners.

“Stinger is the surface-to-air missile of choice for 24 countries, including Germany and nine other NATO members,” said Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. “We are seeing historically high demand for Stinger because of its unrivaled effectiveness and success against short-range threats.”

Raytheon has worked on upgrades for the Stinger over the years, in particular making improvements to its guidance and control system for accuracy and adding retrofits to increase effectiveness against unmanned airborne systems by allowing the missile to detonate near those targets even without a direct hit.

While the Stinger remains a sought-after weapon, Raytheon has also been developing an eventual replacement for it in the form of the U.S. Army’s Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor, or NGSRl, which completed successful testing earlier this year.

Under the new partnership, Diehl is currently assessing its options to increase production capacity at existing sites and other locations.

“For Diehl Defence, relaunching production for Stinger missiles builds on our proven capabilities and expertise in that product range and fits seamlessly in our strong standing on the market for ground-based air defence systems,” Diehl Defence CEO Helmut Rauch said.

This partnership for Raytheon comes as the latest development in a year when the Arizona defense contractor has been racking up multibillion-dollar contracts, most recently inking a $3.5 billion deal with the U.S. Air Force at the start of August.

By Jeff Gifford – Phoenix Business Journal

A2Z MANUFACTURING SW • 44 • Sept / Oct 2025