Lockheed Martin has opened a new advanced hypersonic missile factory in Courtland, Alabama in the US.
Capitalising on digital factory capabilities to deliver the new technology, the company is working closely with the US Department of Defense (DOD) to deliver new warfare capabilities.
"Lockheed Martin has manufactured defence systems in Courtland since 1994, providing increasingly sophisticated capabilities to protect our nation, allies, and security partners," said Sarah Hiza, vice president and general manager of strategic and missile defence systems at Lockheed Martin Space. "Our long-time partnerships with Alabama, the Department of Defense, and academic researchers have paved the way to develop the most advanced hypersonic strike capabilities using the best-of-the-best digital technologies from across our enterprise."
The facility represents Lockheed Martin's commitment to establishing northern Alabama as the base of the company's hypersonic defence programmes.
The 65,000ft2 Hypersonic Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB 4) is built on a digital foundation that Lockheed Martin has prioritised throughout the company to increase speed and agility in development and production.
This location integrates critical digital transformation advancements such as robotic thermal protection application capabilities, smart torque tools and mixed-reality capabilities for training and virtual inspections.
The machines in this facility also will connect to the company's Intelligent Factory Framework early next year, which digitally links production facilities and assets across Lockheed Martin to help enable unprecedented insights into the health, status and optimisation of operations.
The Courtland site houses one of four transformational manufacturing facilities Lockheed Martin is opening in the US within one year.
Lockheed Martin continues to make significant investments in the development and manufacturing of hypersonic systems to counter rapidly emerging threats from near-peer adversaries.
The programmes produced at this site support several US military branches and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), including the US Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike CPS, the US Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) and the US Air Force’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).
In the last two years, Lockheed Martin has added a total of 117,000ft2 at the Courtland facility. The opening of MAB4 will bring an estimated 70 jobs to the area, adding to the approximately 2,600 employees already based in the state.
