A major defense contractor’s effort to boost production capacity amid surging demand is bearing fruit. Reuters reports that Lockheed Martin is on track to significantly boost its production of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) as Ukraine and U.S. partners around the world seek to acquire more:
Thanks to some investments made over the last year in the 282,000 square foot building where the ground vehicles are made, Lockheed only needs a few upgrades to meet that increased production rate, Lockheed executives said.
The list includes a paint booth, non-skid coating mixer, tire assembly manipulator arm and an axel installation track, the executives told Reuters.
On an earnings call with investors Lockheed’s CEO said “on HIMARS specifically, we’ve already met with our long lead supply chain to plan for increasing production to 96 of these units a year.” Lockheed started 2022 with a HIMARS launcher production rate of 48, but has since ramped up to 60 year.
The demand for the HIMARS is significant, as it has played a starring role on the battlefield in Ukraine and as Taiwan awaits delivery:
The delay of those, and other, deliveries to Taiwan — including Harpoon anti-ship missiles, HIMARS (high — mobility artillery-rocket systems), and howitzers — has been a second-tier congressional foreign-policy controversy over the past year or so that has not dramatically spilled into public view until recently. But a new push is now under way at the Pentagon and in the defense industry to work in concert and plug some of the most glaring gaps. Lockheed is in the process of doubling its Javelin production to about 4,000 annually and similarly boosting the number of HIMARS. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, during a Reagan [Forum] panel, pointed to a battery of new contracts that her organization has rolled out to replenish weapons stocks: NASAMS air-defense systems, Excalibur guided-artillery shells, and 155-millimeter ammunition are all part of the larger production push.
Key officials from both of these categories acknowledge that there’s still significant progress to be made.
An effort that will bear watching.