Divergent says it cut a legacy Raytheon weapon airframe's part count 80%

Aug. 13, 2025 — Divergent Technologies said it and Raytheon redesigned a legacy Raytheon effector, consolidating the airframe's components and cutting its total part count by 80 percent, while keeping performance and survivability. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of June 17, 2026)

Outcome: The companies "rapidly redesigned a legacy Raytheon effector, consolidating the airframe's component count, effectively reducing the total part count by 80 percent." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)
Cost: No cost or unit-price figures were disclosed. Divergent says its system works "without the need for dedicated tooling or legacy supply chains." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)
Speed: In a second example, the companies "modernized a decades-old design for scalable production in under five months, despite the absence of the original tooling or production infrastructure." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

What fewer parts means

Divergent said simplifying the structure "through functionally integrated structures" preserved "the platform's performance and survivability" while "improving manufacturability and reducing assembly complexity." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

"The reimagined design, parts consolidation, and simplified assembly underscore how digital manufacturing can sustain and evolve mission-critical systems," the release said. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

The missing tooling

The second example addresses a familiar problem with long-serving products: the original tooling and production setup no longer existed. Divergent said the companies still got that decades-old design ready "for scalable production in under five months." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

"In a matter of months, we transformed a legacy blueprint into an optimized, digital-first design that was then manufactured as flight-ready hardware using a next generation, software-defined manufacturing process," said Lukas Czinger, Divergent's co-founder and CEO. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

"Our team's success has demonstrated the power that a fully integrated digital production system brings to extend the life of existing platforms and meet urgent operational needs," he said. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

The customer's view

"Divergent's innovative digital manufacturing approach has compressed a multi-year development cycle into just a few months, which is a crucial advantage as our customers face rapidly evolving threats," said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

She said it "has tremendous potential as we explore how we can apply it across the Raytheon portfolio." That is an exploration, not a commitment. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

Divergent describes DAPS as an "end-to-end software-hardware production system" to "design, additively manufacture, and automatically assemble complex structures" for automotive, aerospace and defense, and says it eliminates "upfront capex." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)

Since then

In June 2026, Divergent said it had built its own metal printer, the Monolith One, a 24-kilowatt laser powder bed machine that it does not sell, and announced a second factory, a 430,000-square-foot site in Long Beach, Calif. (Divergent, June 17, 2026)

Six Monolith Ones run at its Torrance, Calif., headquarters and 64 more are to come online at Long Beach over 24 months. Divergent said that will lift annual output eightfold, with capacity for more than 30,000 500-pound-class missile airframes or 275,000 piece parts a year when fully online. It lists RTX among its customers, but did not say which programs the new capacity serves. (Divergent, June 17, 2026)

Divergent said DAPS has made hardware for Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Atomics, CoAspire, Saab, Triumph Group, Bugatti and McLaren, and that it has raised more than $1 billion. (Divergent, June 17, 2026)

What went wrong

Legacy designs outlived their tooling. The decades-old design had lost "the original tooling or production infrastructure." (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)
No baseline. The release gives no starting part count, cost or unit price. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)
Unnamed products. Neither the effector nor the decades-old design is named. (Divergent, Aug. 13, 2025)
What we don't know yet: whether the redesigned Raytheon parts are in production, at what rate and cost, and whether they will be made at Long Beach.

Our follow-up question for Divergent and Raytheon

What was the effector's part count before and after, and has the redesign entered rate production?

Sources

Divergent Technologies, “Divergent Builds America's Most Advanced Industrial Metal 3D Printer, Monolith One, and Announces Second Factory,” PR Newswire, June 17, 2026. prnewswire.com
Divergent Technologies, “Divergent and RTX's Raytheon Collaborate to Redesign and Deliver Critical Naval Systems,” PR Newswire, Aug. 13, 2025. prnewswire.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder