Boeing on track to break PAC-3 Missile seeker annual production record

In the quest to ramp up Patriot missile production this year in the U.S., Boeing is on track to break its annual seeker production record, the company announced Aug. 6.

“In the first half of the year, the program has surpassed its previous three- and six-month rolling PAC-3 seeker production records,” a company statement notes. “The program is also on pace to break its annual seeker production record by over 20% by year-end.”

Production for the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile, the most high-end variant of the Patriot missile family, is moving full steam ahead.

The Army announced at the end of June that it had awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.5 billion multiyear contract to procure 870 PAC-3 MSE missiles and associated hardware.

Lockheed was already fully funded to build 550 missiles per year in order to replenish the PAC-3 MSE missiles sent to Ukraine in support of its defense against the Russian invasion. The company had been building 350 missiles each year by 2018 and was already ramping that number up to 500 per year prior to the war in Ukraine.

Lockheed has also invested internally to ramp up to 650 a year by 2027, anticipating the demand from the U.S. Army to replenish the stockpile.

Additionally, Lockheed has been working to stabilize the supply chain, particularly to ensure Aerojet Rocketdyne can supply solid-rocket motors and Boeing can supply seekers at a production pace that meets demand.

Boeing invested money internally to align with Lockheed’s plan, Jim Bryan, Boeing’s director of integrated air and missile defense programs, told Defense News earlier this year.

This investment included funding a 35,000-square-foot factory expansion at its Huntsville, Alabama, facility for its seekers, which equates to a 30% production capacity increase.

While Bryan said Boeing is able to build enough seekers to keep up with the planned 650 missile production rate using the facility it has, the new expansion will feature added efficiencies — such as automated inspection systems and robotic soldering — that allow the company to meet “much higher” demand signals beyond 650.

Boeing attributes its rapid ramp up of seeker production to a number of factors, including “lean improvements in manufacturing processes and production control; greater supply chain stability to support PAC-3 circuit card assembly and complete seeker manufacturing; and improved first-time quality in product testing,” the statement lists.

A total of 17 countries have PAC-3 missiles in their inventories, including Ukraine. Boeing has delivered more than 5,000 “increasingly sophisticated” PAC-3 seekers for the U.S. Army and international customers.