RTX Brings Advances in Engines, Weapons and Networking

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

It was 2012 in the Arabian Gulf, and for Don Borchelt – serving as a U.S. Air Force commander in an operation that spanned two theaters – success came down to the things he could count on.

Things like the supply lines for mission-critical parts. The dedication of air crews to meet their missions. And the reliability of the engines, radars, sensors, weapons and other systems that put the power into a huge range of aircraft including F-15 Eagles, F-22 Raptors, U-2 reconnaissance planes and MQ-1 Predators.

Those systems – many of which are made by RTX businesses – worked so well, Borchelt said, “we just didn’t think about it a lot.”

“We knew what was available to us was the best American industry had to offer. And that’s a good thing,” said Borchelt, who retired in 2018 and now leads business development for the ACES 5 ejection seat at Collins Aerospace, an RTX business. “Any time you get a large combined or joint task force together, you’re going to be carrying a whole plethora of RTX capabilities into that battlespace, which is going to give America and its allies that decisive edge.”

Here’s a look at some of the systems RTX produces to provide that edge – something military leaders call “air dominance.”