Lockheed Martin opens $16.5M missile defense lab in Huntsville

Lockheed Martin opened a $16.5M engineering facility at its Huntsville campus Tuesday, introducing more capabilities for missile defense innovation in Alabama.

The 25,000 square-foot Missile System Integration Lab is where Lockheed Martin plans to conduct development, testing, and system integration for the nation’s next long range ballistic missile defense interceptor – the Next Generation Interceptor for the Missile Defense Agency.

“Lockheed Martin is committed to North Alabama and this facility is further evidence of that,” said Robert Lightfoot, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. “We are pleased to celebrate adding an advanced facility to our Huntsville campus today — the same year we mark 60 years in the Rocket City supporting our customers.”

The new lab’s concept is strengthened by Lockheed Martin’s decades of experience and expertise supporting the U.S. missile defense mission.

“This facility serves as a testbed to prove out our hardware and software integration, adding new levels of digital capability, agility and connectivity with our customers,” said Sarah Reeves, vice president of NGI at Lockheed Martin. “It is another example of Lockheed Martin’s investment in the technology and advanced facilities critical to reducing risk for our NGI program. The MSIL brings us even closer to flight testing and production of our interceptor, which will revolutionize U.S. homeland missile defense.”

NGI program headquarters is in Huntsville, where Lockheed Martin is bringing jobs, infrastructure and investment to help strengthen the region as a thriving excellence hub for missile defense.

The company is also planning to break ground this year on two state-of-the-art facilities in Courtland, which will add missile production space and a payload manufacturing center supporting its growing portfolio of capabilities in the state.

Lockheed Martin also has a plant in Troy, a manufacturing, final assembly, test and storage operation for many of the missile programs supported by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. The site has 4,000 acres of land with 52 buildings.

The facility’s nearly 600 employees support final assembly of MFC missiles, including Javelin, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and air-to-ground missiles. It also manufactures missiles and hardware for a variety of development programs. Since it was first established, nearly 190,000 missiles have been produced at the site.