Lockheed breaks ground on Alabama factory for ARRW hypersonic missile

Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a factory expansion in Troy, Alabama, that will triple the space it uses to build the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, the U.S. Air Force’s first hypersonic missile to enter production.

The company held the groundbreaking for the expansion of its Building P-20 on Oct. 27, the day after the U.S. Air Force disclosed that it had awarded Lockheed a $694 million contract to produce and field the missile. The project adds 4,366 m² (47,000 square feet) of production space and, according to Lockheed Martin’s announcement, will equip the building for ARRW production with advanced manufacturing processes, robotics and digital technologies, while adding jobs over the next four years to the company’s workforce of almost 4,000 in Alabama.

Lockheed said it spent $67 million of its own money on the facility expansion and production equipment before receiving government funding, as part of an $8 billion to $9 billion investment the company plans through 2030 to meet demand for munitions. It also said it funded the work, materials and equipment needed to start ARRW production ahead of the contract award.

“The ARRW production contract award showcases Lockheed Martin’s ability to develop and begin production on cutting-edge systems at unprecedented speed and scale,” said Tim Cahill, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

The U.S. Air Force signed the contract on Sept. 29 and announced it on Oct. 26, moving its first hypersonic missile from flight testing into production. The service did not disclose how many missiles it ordered or when they are due, citing operational security. ARRW is too large for most fighter aircraft and will first be carried by the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, the platform Lockheed says it is integrated on, and it has also been tested on the B-1.

ARRW is a boost-glide weapon. A solid-fuel rocket booster carries it to more than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5, before the booster drops away and releases a glide vehicle that maneuvers toward its target. That combination of speed and maneuvering makes it harder to track and intercept than a conventional ballistic missile. Lockheed says the weapon uses advanced materials to withstand the extreme heat of hypersonic flight and is designed to strike targets from long standoff ranges.

The production order follows a long development path. Lockheed began work on ARRW under an August 2018 Air Force contract, and in June 2019 a B-52 flew the first captive-carry test of the missile out of Edwards Air Force Base, California. In March 2023, the Air Force said it would not pursue follow-on procurement once prototyping ended, but it continued test flights, including a final end-to-end launch from a B-52 flying out of Guam in March 2024, and in 2025 told Congress it intended to buy the weapon. The fiscal 2026 budget provided $362 million to begin procurement, and the fiscal 2027 request seeks $452 million more, along with funding for an Increment 2 version with a terminal seeker and a data link.

Troy is one of Lockheed Martin’s main munitions sites. Earlier this year the company broke ground on a new Munitions Production Center, Building 47, in Troy to support THAAD interceptor production and future work on the Next-Generation Interceptor, and in 2021 it opened a hypersonic missile assembly facility in nearby Courtland, Alabama.