Fortastra raises $30 million to ready on-orbit security spacecraft for high-rate production

Lockheed Martin announced Oct. 14 that Hadrian will bring a highly automated machining cell inside its Grand Prairie, Texas, facility. Lockheed expects the 24-machine cell to begin operating in early 2027 and add dedicated capacity for critical defense components.¹

Lockheed's production workforce will operate the cell. Hadrian CEO Chris Power said his company would bring automation, software and workforce training from its own factories into Lockheed to produce more, faster. The announcement follows a seven-year agreement the companies signed in 2025.¹

The cell will join a broader expansion at Grand Prairie, where Lockheed is investing $300 million and increasing its manufacturing footprint to more than 735,000 square feet. Across the facility, Lockheed expects to have added nearly 100 new advanced machines by the end of 2026. The release does not specify the Hadrian arrangement's value or commercial terms, who funds the cell, or which components or programs it will machine.¹

Also announced: Lockheed plans to create 6,000 jobs across the United States, including 2,000 in Texas, as it expands advanced manufacturing capacity for critical munitions.¹

Telle described the Army's first-ever Manufacturing Rodeo as a competitive stress test of both its organic industrial base and the nation's broader manufacturing network. He announced it Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting, saying the race would show "exactly where it breaks." The Army says the aim is to identify weak links, strengthen them and keep iterating.¹

Defense One reported that the event will be "a sort of public competition" to expose where the industrial base falls short of demand and where new players offer innovative approaches.² What it means for any one company is still blank. Telle "did not divulge many details," Breaking Defense reported, and the Army's release names no organizer, competitors, funding or consequence for a weak link beyond strengthening it.^{1, 3}

The rodeo will build on a shift the Army made this year, from single-system production targets toward scaling "advanced manufacturing" across its organic industrial base. That build-out includes manufacturing hubs at Red River, Anniston and Tobyhanna Army Depots and public-private partnerships with Hadrian and Siemens. The Army says the capacity lets it make subcomponents on demand, from complex electric motors to tank engine transmission belt housings.¹ Breaking Defense reported Telle's reasoning: since the Army has invested "a lot in our organic industrial base," it will now hold a competition of sorts among industry.³

Telle's example of the wider supply-chain problem was a basic attack drone, Breaking Defense reported. The Army needs to be able to make millions, he said, and each is "a flying supply chain we don't control enough of."³