With reports that the United States expended more than half of its overall Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors during Operation Epic Fury (Operation Roaring Lion) against Iran, Lockheed Martin has broken ground for a new munitions production center in Troy, Alabama.
The THAAD is designed to intercept threats both outside and inside the atmosphere-occupying a crucial middle tier of the United States defensive air defense layers. The system is built on a hit-to-kill method where it relies on the kinetic energy from the collision to destroy the hostile missile during its terminal phase of flight. The system can detect and track missiles at distances over 2,000 kilometers and engage the target at altitudes up to 150 kilometers.
According to a press release by Lockheed Martin, the facility will add 87,000 square feet of production space for THAAD interceptors and “future work with Next Generation Interceptor (NGI).” The infrastructure, Lockheed said, forms part of its broader $9 billion investment plan over the next decade to grow the overall production capacity of munitions and to modernize over 20 of its facilities across the United States.
"This partnership is critical to surging our munitions capacity, and Lockheed Martin has leaned in aggressively. Today is a testament to that partnership and that progress," said the Honorable Michael Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, during his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony.
In addition to the US, THAAD is operated by the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which inaugurated its first batteries in July of last year.
During the month-long war with Iran, The Washington Post quoted several American officials as stating that over 200 THAAD interceptors were fired in defense of Israel, roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory.
Many US allies have raised concerns over the possible depletion of the interceptor stockpiles, with the US not having enough production to replenish the levels used during the war with Iran at the current rate in the short term.
A US Congress study published in the midst of the war shed worrying light on the inventory of interceptors available to the US, saying that "there is concern that the rate of use of THAAD interceptors during Operation Epic Fury has further reduced the limited stock of interceptors."
"It could take three to eight years to replenish the THAAD missile stockpile, each of which costs an estimated $12.7 million." The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), which provided some of the materials to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), found that the first days of the current US Operation Epic Fury were more intensive than the opening of any other air campaign in the history of the US military, with 5,197 munitions across 35 types carrying a munitions-only replacement bill of $10 - $16 billion in four days.
In January Lockheed Martin signed a framework agreement with the US Department of War to quadruple the production of THAAD interceptors from 96 to 400 per year.
Understanding the urgency, Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO Jim Taiclet said at the ceremony in Troy that the company "is ready now to meet the urgent demand to expand production capacity. We have already invested well over a billion dollars in this expansion, which directly strengthens deterrence and helps ensure our service members and allies have the capabilities they need when they need them."