Christine Thropp
Northrop Grumman will open a 60,000-sq. ft engineering and hypersonic production facility at its Elkton, Maryland campus in support of U.S. military efforts in developing and manufacturing hypersonic weapons for combating evolving threats.
The company said Tuesday it has broken ground on the planned Hypersonics Center of Excellence where the design, development, production and integration of hypersonic technologies will be conducted.
To ensure that the facility will be capable of supporting full lifecycle weapon production, Northrop will install a manufacturing technology and use digital engineering best practices at Hypersonics COE. Autonomous guided vehicles and automated case preparation and inspection platform will also be deployed to support the center’s safe and reliable operations.
“Our new hypersonics production facility will optimize our development efficiency, drive affordability, and ultimately deliver weapons to our warfighters faster,” said Rebecca Torzone, vice president of missile products at Northrop.
The company expects to complete facility construction by 2023 and sees an increase in demand for technically skilled jobs, engineers and other professional roles at the campus.
Northrop’s Elkton accommodates design, manufacturing and control activities for several U.S. defense and space systems.
