Lockheed Martin opens new production facility in Alabama

"Lockheed Martin has manufactured defense systems in Courtland since 1994, providing increasingly sophisticated capabilities to protect our nation, allies, and security partners," says Sarah Hiza, vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin Space in a press release. "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 a commitment from Lockheed Martin to establishing northern Alabama as the base of the company's hypersonic strike programs. The new Hypersonic Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB 4) offers the company 65,000-square-foot of new space for its operations. The second Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) production facility onsite, this location integrates robotic thermal protection application capabilities, smart torque tools and mixed-reality capabilities for training and virtual inspections. The company says that 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 the Lockheed Martin enterprise. Lockheed Martin has had a presence in northern Alabama for over five decades. Within the last two years, Lockheed Martin has added a total of 117,000 square feet 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.