Lockheed Martin intends to almost double production of Javelin missiles from 2,100 per year to 4,000 a year, CEO James Taiclet told CBS News on Sunday.
Why it matters: The U.S. has sent thousands of Javelins to Ukraine, where the antitank missiles have been an effective weapon in the fight against Russia’s invading forces.
- President Biden last week visited a Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama that makes the weapons in partnership with Raytheon Technologies as he urged Congress to pass a $33 billion humanitarian and military aid package for Ukraine, Reuters notes.
What they’re saying: Taiclet told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that efforts to nearly double production “will take a number of months, maybe even a couple of years to get there because we have to get our supply chain to-to also crank up,” but he expected this to happen “in a reasonable amount of time.”
- “We’re starting now to ramp it up because we have an active production line right now that the president saw,” Taiclet said.
- “We’ve got a supply chain that’s active in addition to that. So we can start turning up the heat now and ramping the production immediately because of those circumstances,” he added.
Source: axios.com