A new facility for Lockheed Martin opened this week in north Alabama, offering the company greater capabilities for engineering in missile defense and putting the finishing touch on a $16.5 million investment into its future.
“Lockheed Martin is committed to North Alabama and this facility is further evidence of that,” Robert Lightfoot, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space, said. “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 lab doubles as an expansion of Lockheed Martin’s existing footprint in Huntsville, Ala., providing a 25,000 square foot site for it to work on the homeland defense interceptor program for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). That program is focused on creating the Next Generation Interceptor, a modern, long range ballistic missile defense system that Lockheed Martin will develop, test and work to integrate.
In addition to that work, the new facility will also house a digital engineering center. Beyond this, the company plans to begin work on two new facilities in Courtland, Alabama later this year, adding further missile production space and a payload manufacturing center.