Photo from a 2020 test flight. (U.S. Navy)
By Troy Turner
Lockheed Martin’s Alabama facility in Courtland will be among the company’s plants receiving additional work in an Army and Navy joint project to develop and deploy hypersonic weapons.
The Navy announced a new contract modification for Lockheed Martin Space of Littleton, Colorado, with a value of almost $1.36 billion for work that “will provide program management, engineering development, systems integration, long lead material, testing, and special tooling and equipment in support of missile and launching platform production for Conventional Prompt Strike.”
Conventional Prompt Strike is a conventional, boost-glide hypersonic weapon system.
Its missile includes a two-stage solid rocket motor booster and a Common Hypersonic Glide Body containing a kinetic energy projectile warhead. Commanders will launch CPS from Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class submarines to penetrate air defenses to strike high-value, time-sensitive targets; while the Army explores options for ground use of the weapon, including its Dark Eagle program.
Work under the modified contract will be performed in Denver, Colorado (55%); Sunnyvale, California (16%); Magna, Utah (8%); Courtland, Alabama (7%); Simsbury, Connecticut (4%); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (3%); East Aurora, New York (2%); Owego, New York (2%); and various other locations (less than 1% each, totaling 3%).
Work is expected to be completed on Sept. 30 2032.
The Navy and Army are both providing funding for the project. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting agency.
Lockheed Martin in Alabama
Lockheed Martin has a large footprint in Alabama, especially in the Huntsville region.
The company opened its 65,000-square-foot Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB4) in Courtland in 2021, touted as a “digital first” center for the development of hypersonic strike technologies.
More recently, in December 2025, Lockheed Martin announced that construction on a state-of-the-art facility that will support production of the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) was nearing completion in Courtland.
The 88,000-square-foot Missile Assembly Building-5 (MAB-5) is on track for completion in 2026.
This purpose-built facility is a critical piece of Lockheed Martin’s commitment to delivering the NGI system to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) with speed, reliability and precision. NGI is the future of homeland missile defense, designed to defeat evolving ballistic missile threats to the United States.
“We’re building out nearly 100,000 square feet of manufacturing and production spaces in Courtland dedicated to the NGI program,” said Johnathon Caldwell, vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin. “The new Missile Assembly Building represents a major investment in our ability to produce the NGI at scale and meet the government’s need for rapid delivery.”
Lockheed Martin also announced last December that it had opened a Hypersonics System Integration Lab at its Huntsville campus, representing a $17.1 million investment.
Lockheed Martin images
“As global threats evolve at unprecedented speed, the defense community is turning its focus to technologies that can outpace and outmaneuver potential adversaries. Hypersonic weapons, capable of traveling at five times the speed of sound, have become a central pillar of that modernization effort,” a company press statement said.
The 17,000-square-foot integration facility will bring together advanced test equipment, state-of-the-art simulation tools and a world-class integration environment under one roof.
Lockheed Martin has various other operations in Alabama, including its ties to the Alabama Air National Guard’s 187th fighter wing in Montgomery. It flies the F-35 stealth fighter jet, of which the company’s aviation sector is the primary contractor.
Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. His bio can be found here.
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