WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency today awarded Lockheed Martin a $35 billion undefined contract action (UCA) to quadruple production of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors over a seven-year period, the company and the Defense Department announced.
The company said the contract “puts in action” the THAAD framework agreement Lockheed signed with the DoD in January. As Breaking Defense reported at the time, the agreement will allow THAAD interceptor production to grow from its current rate of 96 missiles a year to an annual rate of 400 interceptors.
“This award reflects our shared vision with the Department of War to strengthen America’s Arsenal of Freedom through a transformational shift to multiyear procurement,” Tim Cahill, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said in a company release today. “This new approach propels our efforts to strengthen the defense industrial base, expand production and deliver capabilities to the American warfighter at unprecedented speed and scale.”
Today’s award comes after Lockheed Martin established a deal with the DoD to increase production capacity for PAC-3 MSE, which resulted in a $4.7 billion UCA in April, and another deal to ramp up Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) in March.
According to the DoD, work on today’s THAAD contract will be performed in Dallas, Texas, Sunnyvale, Calif., Troy, Ala. and Camden, Arkansas. Less than a month ago Lockheed broke ground on the Troy facility, which is a 87,000 square foot production plant with a notable name of “Building 47,” potentially a nod to President Donald Trump as the 47th president.
The Trump administration has been exploring a handful of ways to boost munitions production, especially at a time when it is looking to refill its stockpiles in the wake of operations against Iran. It also comes after Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to help munitions suppliers find ways to ramp up production, Michael Cadenazzi, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, told reporters last week.
