Lockheed Martin has secured a $694 million U.S. Air Force contract to manufacture its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), advancing efforts to field an air-launched hypersonic strike system. Designed to travel beyond Mach 5, the weapon aims to help American forces engage targets quickly from long distances.The award also brings production capacity into focus. Lockheed Martin has started expanding its facility in Troy, Alabama, to support manufacturing and prepare for larger production volumes. The work follows years of development and testing with the Air Force.Alabama facility expands productionLockheed Martin broke ground on an expansion of Building P-20 in Troy that will add 47,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The project will triple the facility’s existing production area dedicated to ARRW.The expansion is expected to create American jobs over the next four years. It will also equip workers to manufacture the weapon using advanced manufacturing methods, robotics, and digital technologies.Lockheed Martin has committed $67 million to the facility expansion and associated equipment before receiving government funding for the project. The investment forms part of a broader plan to spend $8 billion to $9 billion through 2030 to meet rising demand for munitions.Alabama already hosts nearly 4,000 Lockheed Martin employees. The additional manufacturing space could strengthen the state’s role in the company’s defense production network as the Air Force moves toward larger-scale manufacturing.B-52 carries hypersonic weaponThe Air Force designed ARRW for integration with the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. The combination would allow the aircraft to launch a high-speed weapon against targets from considerable distances, keeping the launch platform away from some threats.Traveling faster than Mach 5 means ARRW can exceed five times the speed of sound. Its hypersonic flight profile is intended to shorten the time available for an adversary to detect, assess, and respond to an incoming strike.Speed alone, however, does not determine a weapon’s effectiveness. ARRW must also withstand intense aerodynamic heating and maintain accuracy throughout its flight.Lockheed Martin says the missile uses advanced materials to manage extreme temperatures. Its onboard technology package is designed to preserve accuracy and lethality, while its capabilities aim to help it overcome a range of defensive systems.These engineering demands make manufacturing readiness an important step. Moving from development and testing into production requires repeatable processes that can deliver complex hardware at the required scale.Production targets strategic capabilityTim Cahill, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said the award demonstrates the company’s ability to move advanced systems into production quickly. He described ARRW as a high-precision weapon intended to expand the Air Force’s strike options.Lockheed Martin has continued research and development alongside its preparations for manufacturing. The company says those efforts support the Air Force’s requirement for an air-launched hypersonic weapon.The production contract marks a significant manufacturing milestone, but it does not, by itself, establish how quickly the Air Force will receive operational missiles. Delivery schedules, production quantities, and deployment timelines were not specified in the supplied announcement.The Alabama expansion nevertheless establishes the industrial capacity needed to support the program’s next phase. Its progress will help determine how quickly Lockheed Martin can turn the weapon’s development work into manufactured systems for the U.S. military.