Textron Systems

Textron Systems

Textron Systems is the defense and government division of Textron Inc, a listed US industrial conglomerate. It produces uncrewed air and ground vehicles, armoured vehicles, precision weapons and surveillance systems, mainly for the US military and allied governments. Its uncrewed aircraft line centres on the Aerosonde, and for two decades on the RQ-7 Shadow.

Key Products

Aerosonde — Small long-endurance fixed-wing aircraft for maritime patrol, weather reconnaissance and surveillance, designed for expeditionary land and ship-based operations. Textron says it can carry more than 40 payload types, including electronic warfare, synthetic aperture radar and signals intelligence systems.

RQ-7 Shadow — Runway-launched tactical aircraft that was the US Army’s brigade-level surveillance workhorse for over twenty years. The Army retired it in 2024, at a ceremony held on 19 March at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Ship-to-Shore Connector — Air-cushion landing craft for the US Navy, one of the division’s larger non-aviation programmes.

Business and Financial Position

Textron Inc is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as TXT. For full-year 2025 it reported revenue of $14.8 billion, up 8 percent, and segment profit of $1.4 billion, up 14 percent.

Textron Systems is one segment among several, alongside Bell, Textron Aviation and others, and it is a small part of the whole. It reported revenues of $296 million in the first quarter of 2025 and $307 million in the third, with segment profit of $40 million in each of the first two quarters. Its backlog was $3.3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.

Why It Matters

Textron Systems has deep institutional relationships inside US Army aviation, built over twenty years of Shadow operations. The question is whether those relationships convert into the next generation of programmes, and so far that has not been settled.

The Army selected Textron and Griffon Aerospace in 2023 to advance in the Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System competition to replace the Shadow. In May 2025 the Army halted that competition under its Army Transformation Initiative without awarding a contract, and it is also phasing out the MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Former competitors have been invited to compete again alongside new vendors, with purchases potentially beginning in fiscal 2026.

That leaves Textron’s tactical drone business in an unusual position: its flagship Army platform is retired, its replacement competition was cancelled after it had won a place in the final round, and the successor path is not yet defined. The Aerosonde and the division’s non-aviation programmes carry the business in the meantime.