Raytheon, an RTX business, recently broke ground on a $115 million, 26,000 square-foot expansion of its Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility, which will increase the factory’s space for integrating and delivering on critical defense programs by more than 50 percent. The expansion will also bring an estimated 185 new jobs to the area, growing RTX’s employee footprint in Alabama to more than 2,200 people. Raytheon’s Redstone facility is the final integration point for many missile programs for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, U.S. 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. It will also ready our operations to accelerate delivery of our vital counter-hypersonic solution,” said Raytheon President Phil Jasper.
The Redstone Raytheon Missile Integration Facility first opened in 2012. Expansion construction is scheduled to conclude in 2025. The facility currently 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-ever interceptor to defeat the emerging threat of hypersonic glide vehicles in their vulnerable glide phase of flight. With the expansion of our Missile Integration Facility at Redstone, Raytheon is demonstrating its ability and commitment to continued GPI development.
GPI is to provide regional hypersonic missile defense by launching specially modified missiles from U.S. Navy surface warships that engage and destroy incoming hypersonic missiles as they glide through the boundary between space and Earth’s atmosphere. Hypersonic missiles can reach speeds faster than Mach 5, which is nearly 4,000 miles per hour. The GPI interceptor will launch from the vertical launch systems aboard Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to intercept incoming hypersonic missiles in their glide phase of flight. GPI will bridge the gap between the Navy SM-3 and SM-6 missiles, which attack enemy missiles at various phases of their flights.
Raytheon, an RTX business, is a leading provider of defense solutions to help the U.S. government, our allies and partners defend their national sovereignty and ensure their security. For more than 100 years, Raytheon has developed new technologies and enhanced existing capabilities in integrated air and missile defense, smart weapons, missiles, advanced sensors and radars, interceptors, space-based systems, hypersonics and missile defense across land, air, sea and space. RTX is the world’s largest aerospace and defense company. Through industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon – the company are advancing aviation, engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and developing next-generation technology solutions.
