Lockheed Martin to ramp up Javelin missile production amid Ukraine war

Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said on Sunday that his company would nearly double production of their Javelin missiles as the U.S. sends hundreds of the weapons to aid Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion.

“​​Right now, our capacity is 2,100 Javelin missiles per year. We’re endeavoring to take that up to 4,000 per year, and that will take a number of months, maybe even a couple of years to get there because we have to get our supply chain to also crank up,” Taiclet said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” 

“We’re starting now to ramp it up because we have an active production line right now that the president saw,” he added, referencing President Biden’s recent trip to a Lockheed Martin facility in Troy, Ala.

“So we can start turning up the heat now and ramping the production immediately because of those circumstances,” he also said.

Taiclet said the war in Ukraine has “highlighted a couple of really important things for us,” including the “need to have superior systems in large enough numbers” to meet demand and “control of the airspace.”

The U.S. government has been looking to defense contractors to backfill the military’s supply of weapons so the U.S. can continue to ensure Ukraine can defend itself against Moscow’s forces.

Last week, the Pentagon moved $1.45 billion to the Army and Marine Corps to restock Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that the U.S. sent to Ukraine.