WARTON, UK—BAE Systems will open a new assembly plant at its manufacturing complex here that will apply cobots, virtual and augmented reality, and other advanced technologies to the assembly of military aircraft.
MCKINNEY, TX—Raytheon will build a 200,000-square-foot assembly plant here, supporting 500 new high-tech jobs at its Space and Airborne Systems headquarters. Construction will be completed in late 2020.
FORT WORTH, TX—Lockheed Martin delivered its 66th F-35 this month, hitting its delivery target for the year and boosting its production level by more than 40 percent compared with last year. Lockheed is ramping up production of the F-35 and plans to hire an additional 1,800 workers by 2020.
HUNTSVILLE, AL—Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to build a new state-of-the-art factory here to build the company’s next-generation rocket engine. The facility is expected to create 800 jobs.
Tier 2 suppliers may be less well-known than Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs, but that doesn’t mean their role in the manufacturing chain is any less important.
PALMDALE, CA—Assemblers at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s plant here recently started to use an optical projection system to build the center fuselage of the F-35 Lighting II fighter jet. The facility was the recipient of ASSEMBLY’s 2013 Assembly Plant of the Year award.
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has awarded Oshkosh Defense a $30 billion contract to build nearly 55,000 joint light tactical vehicles for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps over the next 25 years.
