By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin broke ground on Thursday on an 87,000-square-foot Munitions Production Center at its Troy, Alabama campus, as part of a U.S. push to expand missile output and strengthen the defense industrial base.
The facility, designated Building 47, will house production lines for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors and the Next Generation Interceptor missiles, nearly doubling the site's current manufacturing capacity.
"Today we
mark an important step forward for our nation's defense industrial base," Lockheed Chairman, President and CEO Jim Taiclet said at the ceremony, adding the plant is part of an $8 billion to $9 billion investment plan through 2030. About $1.25 billion has already been spent ahead of contract finalization.
The expansion follows a seven-year framework agreement Lockheed secured earlier this year to quadruple THAAD interceptor production to 400 units annually from 96. The company has also agreed to more than triple annual output of Patriot PAC-3 missile interceptors to 2,000 units. Lockheed said it has since signed a third framework agreement to quadruple Precision Strike Missile production.
Michael Duffy, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, attended the ceremony and said multi-year procurement deals were key to enabling the investment by providing greater demand certainty.
"Today marks the moment talk becomes action," Duffy said.
Lockheed said Building 47 is expected to create a significant number of jobs over the next three years, adding to nearly 4,000 employees the company already has in Alabama. Across the country, Lockheed plans to add about 4,500 frontline workers as part of the broader expansion.
The Troy facility supports final assembly of missiles including Javelin, THAAD, Hellfire and JASSM. Lockheed broke ground on a separate Munitions Acceleration Center in Camden, Arkansas in January and plans modernization of more than 20 facilities across Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts and Texas.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
