In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Army awarded Raytheon a $624 million contract to restart Stinger anti-aircraft missile production after an 18-year gap, with assembly lines reactivated in Tucson, Arizona. Lockheed Martin received a separate $309 million order to expand Javelin anti-tank missile output at its Troy, Alabama facility, where annual production will climb from 2,100 to 3,960 rounds by 2026. Together, these two programs will replace roughly 10,000 missiles sent to Ukraine since February 2022 and support an estimated 1,300 new manufacturing and engineering positions across both states.
Restarting Stinger and Javelin Production
The Army’s five-year Stinger purchase plan totals 3,500 missiles, while Javelin backlog now exceeds 9,000 units from U.S. and allied orders. The Stinger line restart in Tucson, Arizona marks the first new production of the man-portable air-defense system in nearly two decades. Lockheed Martin’s Troy, Alabama facility will see annual Javelin output climb from 2,100 to 3,960 rounds by 2026.
The Army’s five-year Stinger purchase plan totals 3,500 missiles, while Javelin backlog now exceeds 9,000 units from U.S. and allied orders.
The two programs together support an estimated 1,300 new manufacturing and engineering positions across Arizona and Alabama. The restart required rebuilding supplier networks that had gone dormant after the Cold War, including rocket motor producers, seeker manufacturers, and precision machining shops.
Expanding 155mm Artillery Shell Production
To hit the new 100,000-round monthly target by 2025, the Army is executing a roughly $6 billion expansion across three sites. The General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems plant in Mesquite, Texas, is adding new rotary forging and machining lines, while a former steel facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is being converted to produce shell bodies and load, assemble, and pack operations. A greenfield plant near Camden, Arkansas, will handle IMX-104 explosive filling.
These projects are expected to create over 1,000 direct construction and production jobs, with suppliers of steel billets, fuzes, and propellant adding further employment across Ohio, Iowa, and Tennessee. The expansion addresses a critical bottleneck identified after Ukraine burned through U.S. stockpiles at rates not seen since the Korean War. The Army is also funding new propellant production capacity, since legacy sources could not keep pace with the 100,000-round monthly requirement.
HIMARS and GMLRS Scale-Up
In October 2024, Lockheed Martin signed a $4.8 billion contract to build HIMARS launchers and associated equipment through May 2028. A separate $4.1 billion award in November 2024 covers two production lots of GMLRS rockets, the guided munition Ukraine has fired by the thousands since 2022. The demand stabilizes Lockheed’s Camden, Arkansas facility, where HIMARS assembly runs alongside GMLRS motor production.
The company added a second shift in 2023 and expanded its supplier network to roughly 200 firms across 40 states. Each HIMARS vehicle uses components from 45 states, including chassis work from Wisconsin, hydraulic systems from Ohio, and software integration from Texas. Camden’s workforce has grown to over 1,000 employees, up from 700 before the Ukraine conflict. Lockheed projects GMLRS output rising to 14,000 rockets per year by 2025, a 40 percent increase over pre-war levels.
Patriot Interceptor and Radar Modernization
RTX has expanded seeker and interceptor production at its Andover, Massachusetts, facility. It has also grown output at a Huntsville, Alabama, plant that assembles PAC-3 MSE interceptors. The company is adding shifts, tooling, and test cells. That should raise output from roughly 500 to 650 interceptors per year by 2027.
In parallel, RTX is accelerating development of the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS. This 360-degree gallium nitride radar replaces the Patriot’s current mechanically scanned MPQ-65. The U.S. Army has ordered six LTAMDS units for operational testing. RTX has also begun low-rate initial production at its Forest, Mississippi, integration site.
Ukraine’s repeated intercepts of Russian Kinzhal and Iskander missiles in 2023 and 2024 supplied live combat data. RTX engineers are now using that data to refine seeker software and radar tracking algorithms.
Loitering Munitions and Counter-UAS Systems
AeroVironment will expand Switchblade 600 production at its Simi Valley, California plant. That move follows a $990 million Army contract from August 2024, the largest loitering munition order in company history. The Pentagon’s Replicator initiative aims to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems by August 2025. AeroVironment, Anduril, and Performance Drone Works are among the first vendors.
On the counter-UAS side, the Army awarded $425 million in September 2024 to RTX and Lockheed Martin for Coyote and MORFIUS interceptors. Both are built in Tucson, Arizona and Grand Prairie, Texas. Ukraine’s battlefield experience revealed a supply-chain vulnerability. Chinese-made motors, flight controllers, and batteries sat inside commercial drones. In response, the Defense Innovation Unit now requires domestic sourcing for key components on its Blue UAS cleared list. Congress also added $200 million in the fiscal 2024 supplemental to stand up a dedicated production line.