Overview
- Defense leaders announced Wednesday a trio of framework agreements with Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Honeywell to speed Precision Strike Missile output, quadruple THAAD seekers, and surge key missile components.
- Lockheed says the new Precision Strike Missile plan will quadruple capacity after the weapon’s first combat use in early March, with the Army shifting from ATACMS to PrSM that fires from HIMARS and MLRS for longer-range strikes.
- BAE Systems and Lockheed will scale infrared seekers for THAAD fourfold at Nashua, New Hampshire, and Endicott, New York, enabling hit-to-kill intercepts of fast ballistic missiles as interceptor production also ramps under earlier plans.
- Honeywell will put $500 million into added lines for navigation units, missile steering actuators, and electronic warfare gear, a demand signal meant to unlock supplier investment and support new hiring on factory floors.
- The agreements pave the way for possible seven-year multi-year contracts that need congressional approval and funding, with near-term buys tied to a roughly $1.5 billion reprogramming push after high munitions use in the Iran war that some outlets frame as a warning for a potential China fight.