Camden, Arkansas: Lockheed Martin Puts $420 Million Into Its Missile Plant and Plans 650 New Jobs

Lockheed Martin will spend $420 million to expand its missile plant in Camden, Arkansas, and expects to add 650 full-time jobs over the next five years, the company and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission announced on Monday.

The expansion will raise production capacity in Camden for three missile programs: the PAC-3 Patriot interceptor, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor, known as THAAD, and the Army Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM. The company said it will hire for a range of positions as the work proceeds.

A plant that dates to 1979

Lockheed Martin Camden Operations opened in 1979 in the Highland Industrial Park in east Camden. The plant covers 2.2 million square feet on 2,427 acres and builds seven programs for the U.S. Department of War: PAC-3, THAAD, PrSM, the Army Tactical Missile System, the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, and the HIMARS and M270 rocket launchers. The company said the Camden site has delivered more than 700,000 missiles and rockets over the past four decades, and it employs about 1,100 people there now. The 650 new jobs would be added over five years, on top of that current workforce.

The second Camden expansion move this year

The announcement is the second major Camden expansion step Lockheed Martin has taken in 2026. In January, the company broke ground on a Munitions Acceleration Center in Camden after an agreement with the U.S. government to quadruple THAAD interceptor production from 96 to 400 a year. The company said the new center is designed to prepare a workforce to build THAAD, PAC-3 and other platforms using advanced manufacturing, robotics and digital technologies. Monday's investment adds general production capacity for the three named programs at the same site.

What officials said

Adam Bailey, the Camden site general manager, said the company is "investing at unprecedented speed and scale to expand manufacturing capacity and deliver the critical capabilities our warfighters need, faster." He said Camden has played a role in the nation's defense for more than four decades and thanked Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the state economic development commission for their support.

Sanders said there is "no place seeing faster growth for a better purpose than Camden" as the city helps rebuild the country's defense industrial base, and she called Arkansas the "Arsenal of Freedom." Clint O'Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said Camden is recognized around the world as a defense manufacturing hub and called the expansion a win for the company, the state and the Camden area. James Lee Silliman of the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development said the commitment shows confidence in the workforce in Ouachita and Calhoun counties.

One question the announcement left open

Arkansas Breaking News noted that the 650-job figure matches the growth Lockheed Martin described in July, when the Army turned its PAC-3 contract into a seven-year deal worth $58.62 billion and the company said it would take its Camden workforce from about 1,200 to about 1,850. Monday's announcement did not say whether the 650 jobs announced this week are part of that earlier plan or come on top of it, and it did not say what state incentives, if any, are attached to the new investment.