Lockheed Martin has completed construction of an advanced manufacturing facility at its campus at Palmdale, California, which is also headquarters to its Skunk Works aviation development centre.

The 215,000 square foot factory has been built with digital infrastructure to incorporate smart manufacturing components, IoT and rapid and agile manufacturing. The site is one of four transformational manufacturing facilities Lockheed Martin is opening in the US this year.

The new building incorporates: an intelligent factory framework; a technology enabled advanced manufacturing environment; and a flexible factory construct to support customer priorities with speed and agility while bolstering manufacturing capability in the United States.

According to Lockheed, manufacturing artisans will work with digital tools to execute operations with maximum efficiency. The incorporation of robotics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality reduces the need for hard tooling, elevating the human experience to drive rapid innovation, a hallmark of the Skunk Works.

In addition to manufacturing, the facility includes office and break spaces to accommodate more than 450 employees. The company has created over 1,500 new jobs for California since 2018.

This project is the cornerstone of over $400 million in capital investments being made across Lockheed Martin’s Palmdale campus to address growth in support of its customers’ missions.

“For more than 100 years, Lockheed Martin has been proud to call California home,” said Jeff Babione, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. “Our partnership with the state has helped us remain competitive and has positioned us for long-term growth. The technology in our new Palmdale facility lets us go beyond manufacturing optimization to the next digital revolution, driving innovation and preserving California’s leadership in the aerospace industry.”