Born Digital, Born Automated: How Lockheed Martin’s NGSRI Program is Scaling Manufacturing Processes
Just a few weeks ago, the Next‑Generation Short‑Range Interceptor (NGSRI) team walked the aisles of our Camden, Ark. facility for an automation demonstration and the first deliveries that support the qualification phase of the program. The visit was more than a routine checkpoint; it signaled a pivotal milestone that validates the initial hardware builds, while allowing the team to perfect manufacturing processes before full‑scale production.
Automation as the Engine of Producibility
Parallel to the agile final assembly line, Lockheed Martin stood up a dedicated automation cell that runs side‑by‑side with each tactical build. This set-up early learnings, feeds real‑time feedback to our engineers and continuously refines the assembly sequence. These efforts do not merely just automate tasks – they build a living, data‑rich “digital twin” of the QuadStar® missile production process. The result is a feedback loop that sharpens producibility at the point of manufacture, rather than after the fact.
Preparing Today to Scale for Tomorrow
The commitment to production focus today is matched by a forward looking strategy that anticipates tomorrow’s demand. The foresight ensures that the first unit flow is compressed to nearly half the traditional duration. The real‑time data from these processes have already identified bottlenecks, reduced rework and trimmed manpower needs, translating directly into cost and schedule savings.
The team is delivering with urgency today while building the capacity to scale for our customers tomorrow.
Learning from Camden’s Heritage, Accelerating into the Future
The Camden facility sets an industry standard for high‑performance munition manufacturing. By harvesting lessons learned from programs such as the PAC-3® MSE and the GMLRS®, the NGSRI team can leverage a production philosophy that is both aggressive and disciplined. Lockheed Martin engineers, production supervisors and supply chain partners collaborate under a single “producibility first” umbrella, ensuring that every new component passes a rigorous manufacturability review before it reaches the line.
Strategic Depth Without the Trade-Off
A cornerstone of that philosophy is a dual‑source, resilient supply chain. The team is adding strategic depth to the NGSRI solution, actively broadening the industrial supply base by investing in and supporting new vendors for multiple interceptor components.
This production model deliberately isolates NGSRI tooling, fixtures and supply chain pathways from other munition lines, allowing ramping to the customers’ target rate while PAC‑3 MSE, GMLRS and other programs continue unaffected. This separation, coupled with the automation cell’s ability to run “what‑if” scenarios, ensures that growth in one area never creates a bottleneck in another.
A Clear Cost Advantage for the Army
Every dollar saved on the production line translates into a strategic advantage on the battlefield. By leaning into advanced manufacturing investments and strategic supplier selections, the team is driving down the unit cost of every QuadStar missile while accelerating delivery timelines. In a competitive procurement environment, that cost‑performance edge is the differentiator that sets Lockheed Martin apart.
Lockheed Martin’s NGSRI solution is a prime example of a born-digital, born-automated program that exemplifies the new, modern defense acquisition process to deliver faster, cheaper and at higher rates of production.
Lockheed Martin’s advanced manufacturing and producibility techniques are not just a footnote in the QuadStar story, but the very backbone. In the end, it’s not just about building a missile; it’s about proactively building the capability to produce it at the speed and scale the nations' demands.