Lockheed opens new hypersonic weapons factory

Lockheed Martin opened a new hypersonic weapons manufacturing site in Northern Alabama on Monday that will build missiles for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army.

It’s the third all-digital facility opened by Lockheed this year, part of a company-wide focus on new, purpose-built factories that can build next-generation weapons faster and cheaper than in the past.

“The nature of the design—the flow of work product—we modeled it all through digital engineering practices, we’ve designed it using digital design techniques, augmented reality, virtual reality,” said Eric Scherff, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems. “This is from the ground up designed to be one of our flagship digital factories.”