Defense giant Raytheon sets up engineering-design hub at ASU's SkySong center
Aerospace and defense giant Raytheon said it will open a new engineering-design hub at Arizona State University, adding to a growing list of companies partnering with the school.
Raytheon will occupy 28,000 square feet of digital design space at SkySong, the school’s Scottsdale Innovation Center north of the main Tempe campus. The engineering-design hub will house roughly 150 professionals, about 95% of whom will be new to Raytheon.
The company already is one of Arizona’s largest employers with an Arizona staff of 14,800, most of whom work in Tucson, and a global workforce of 182,000. The company’s SkySong facility will open in the fall.
Raytheon’s Skysong location will focus on digital designs for the company's defense products. Raytheon’s many products include missiles, aircraft engines and lasers.
"We've been working for years to expand our presence in the greater Phoenix area to take advantage of a talent pool that is uniquely qualified to drive this type of innovation," said Wes Kremer, Raytheon’s president, in a prepared statement. "This expansion will also provide greater opportunities to collaborate with other tech companies and suppliers in the region."
Raytheon said it is developing closer ties to ASU, which has the nation’s largest engineering school, to create a pipeline of talent and to support various research and development projects.
Among other recent ASU business ventures, semiconductor supplier Applied Materials last month said it will set up shop at ASU Research Park in a $270 million research and development partnership.
SkySong, which opened in 2008, is a 1.2 million-square-foot, mixed-use project featuring commercial office space, apartments as well as retail, restaurant and hotel facilities. Raytheon becomes the newest tenant of the innovation center, joining more than 60 other businesses from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as PayPal.
Raytheon, which describes itself as the world’s largest aerospace and defense company, also owns Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney. Raytheon logged 2022 sales of $67 billion, nearly half to the U.S. government. The company is based in Arlington, Virginia.
Reach the reporter at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Raytheon sets up engineering-design hub at ASU site in Scottsdale
