Raytheon reaches 50% completion of $115M Missile Integration Facility expansion on Redstone Arsenal

HUNTSVILLE — Just 13 months after groundbreaking, Raytheon’s $115 million, 26,000 square-foot expansion of its Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility reached its halfway point.

The expansion will support key missile programs including Glide Phase Interceptor, a key component to the recently announced Golden Dome missile defense system, the company said.

Raytheon, an RTX business, said the facility which will increase the factory’s space for integrating and delivering on critical defense programs by more than 50%.

“We are scaling up for the future,” Michael Cox, the company’s Huntsville site director, said. “What we want to do is increase our capacity, increase our throughput, so that we can deliver more systems [more quickly] to the warfighter, to our customers and to our allies.”

The company said it is on track to finish construction in November and bring the 26,000 square-foot addition online in January. The expansion will also bring an estimated 185 jobs to the area, growing RTX’s employee footprint in Alabama to more than 2,200 people.

Related story: Raytheon expanding Missile Integration Facility on Redstone Arsenal.

The Redstone facility is the final integration point for many missile programs for the Missile Defense Agency, the Navy, and other defense customers.

“This important investment in the Huntsville region will help us meet the growing needs of our military customers and service members,” said Raytheon President Phil Jasper. “It will also ready our operations to accelerate delivery of our vital counter-hypersonic solution.”

The facility handles integration of nine variants of the Standard Missile family, including Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6, and will accommodate additional defense programs, including the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI).

GPI will be the first interceptor to defeat the emerging threat of hypersonic glide vehicles in their vulnerable glide phase of flight. With the expansion of the Missile Integration Facility at Redstone, Raytheon said it is demonstrating its ability and commitment to continued GPI development.

The Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility opened in 2012. The expansion construction is scheduled to conclude in November and become operation in January.