Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace is building a state-of-the-art missile production facility in the United States to meet global demand, following expansion in Norway and the recently announced missile factory in Australia. Located near key U.S. Navy facilities, the site in James City County, Virginia will provide additional production capacity, sustainment and in-country tech refresh capabilities for Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) and Joint Strike Missiles (JSM).
“The new missile production facilities in the U.S., Australia and Norway address the strong and long-term demand for our unique technology and the critical need to strengthen collective defense capabilities. Kongsberg has a proud history in the U.S. and we are delighted to continue to invest in the country to support American interests while creating jobs locally,” said Geir Håøy, CEO of Kongsberg.
This is the second new missile production facility Kongsberg has announced in as many months, and the decision to locate this facility in the U.S. was heavily influenced by the possibility that the Department of Defense could award a multiyear procurement contract to Kongsberg.
“The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are important customers for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile. Their demand signals gave us the predictability we needed to make this investment in the United States,” said Eirik Lie, president of Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. “This will allow us to better serve our allies in the U.S. and continue to expand that supply chain locally, building capacity and redundancy for these critical capabilities.”
Kongsberg’s investments will increase overall U.S. manufacturing capability and further increase capacity to build these advanced systems, but more importantly, it will bring this capability to the U.S.
“Kongsberg is investing in a big way in the U.S. market by making Virginia the U.S. home of our new missile factory, which will entail hiring more than 180 people. We will also be investing more than $100 million into the Commonwealth of Virginia over the next few years, in terms of property, plant and equipment,” said Heather Armentrout, president and general manager, Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Kongsberg. “This is in addition to expansion at our core U.S. production facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.”
The new facility in James City County will be equipped to assemble, upgrade and repair both NSM and JSM. The NSM is an anti-ship missile with superior operational performance and high survivability against all enemy defense systems. The JSM is an air-launched strike missile designed to fulfill complex missions, such as Anti-surface Warfare (ASuW) and land attack. The JSM is designed to be deployed internal to the weapons bay of the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A, a characteristic that preserves the low observability features of the aircraft throughout any strike mission. KONGSBERG’s JSM is the only long-range precision strike munition that offers that capability.
Expansion planned for Kongsberg in Pennsylvania
Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace is expanding production capacity at its Johnstown, Penn. remote weapon systems factory as part of a lease extension of 10 years plus options. The company also plans to hire an additional 20 employees in connection with the expansion. Through its U.S. subsidiary Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace Inc., the company will invest a total of $10 million for improvements to the newly leased space, including infrastructure improvements as well as fixtures, tooling and equipment.
“Our continued investments as a company in Pennsylvania are a testament to the highly skilled workforce that has been producing these systems for 20 years at a level of quality and reliability that no other producer of remote weapon stations can match,” said Kjetil Reiten Myhra, executive vice president of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s Defence Systems Division. “Johnstown is home to Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace’s largest production facility outside of Norway and that wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing support of the community.”
The company’s Johnstown facility, a dedicated remote weapon station production facility, currently employs more than 220 people and has a footprint of 235,000 square feet. More than 20,000 remote weapon stations and approximately 100 remote turrets have been produced in this facility since it opened in 2008.
The new production space will support production of the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV-30) gun system – which incorporates a 30 mm auto cannon mounted on a remotely operated turret from the company.
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