On March 25, the Department of War has announced 3 more key frameworks agreed with industry to build the necessary foundations for a drastic acceleration in the pace and capacity of production for key missile types. These latest deals, which come ahead of the reveal on April 3 of the Fiscal Year 2027 Defence Budget request by the White House, follow earlier deals for PATRIOT, THAAD and SM-6.

Lockheed Martin will now make “targeted investments in advanced tooling, facility modernization, and critical testing equipment” to slash production lead times for Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). This new long range strike capability for the US Army, which replaces ATACMS and has recently had its baptism of fire in operation EPIC FURY against Iran, is a key priority and this deal is intended to eventually lead to a quadrupling of the production rate. This latest framework senses as base for negotiations of a future multi-year contract for up to 7 years, should Congress authorize a multi-year contract in the future.

Another agreement has been reached with Honeywell Aerospace: the long-term demand signal given by the Pentagon will result in a $500 million multi-year investment from the Company to modernize and expand its manufacturing capacity. The focus is on accelerating delivery of navigation systems that guide multiple precision munition types; plus high-performance actuators found in missiles and advanced electronic warfare solutions employed across various products.

Finally, another important framework has been agreed with BAE Systems, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, to quadruple the production of the seekers that guide the TALON interceptor missiles of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. This measure is a key complement to the earlier agreement Pentagon-Lockheed Martin for quadrupling production of THAAD munitions: in order to reach the result, the entire supply chain will have to be able to keep pace.

Follow us on Telegram, Facebook and X.