Raytheon Wins DARPA PICASSO Contract for All-Optical Processing
Arlington, Va. – November 03, 2026 -- Raytheon, an RTX business (NYSE: RTX), has won a phase one contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an all-optical processing system for the agency's Photonic Integrated Circuit Architectures for Scalable System Objectives (PICASSO) program. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Raytheon's Advanced Technology team will design photonic circuits that process signals with light, not electricity
Under the contract, the team will design and demonstrate photonic circuit technology that handles signal processing entirely in the optical domain. Raytheon says this lets operators detect threats sooner, respond faster and keep better situational awareness in contested environments.