Northrop Grumman Corporation celebrated construction progress with employees of its new Propulsion Innovation Center, a 57,000 square foot facility in Elkton, Maryland, that will house 250 engineers working on advanced propulsion products to support U.S. and allied defense programs. Northrop Grumman is a leader in solid rocket motor (SRM) capacity and scale and is ready to deliver capabilities now while building for the future. This new facility adds to the existing excess capacity for SRMs across the breadth of Northrop Grumman propulsion manufacturing sites.

The Propulsion Innovation Center is part of a broader $100 million investment by Northrop Grumman at the company's Elkton site, increasing the company's capacity to meet DoD hypersonic air-breathing and solid rocket motor propulsion needs.

Along with other new construction, modernization and smart infrastructure efforts already underway at the 550-acre Propulsion Systems & Controls location, the new building will increase onsite solid rocket motor (SRM) design and manufacturing capacity by 25% and support over 30% increased staffing.

Northrop Grumman provides end-to-end production, for SRMs and advanced propulsion hypersonic weapons including design, development and integration. Northrop Grumman's overall production capacity for solid rocket propellant across six major sites totals about 30 million pounds/year today rising to nearly 50 million/year by 2028. Northrop Grumman's 2024 SRM production rate of approximately 13,000 is slated to rise to over 25,000 in 2029.

"We're delivering advanced propulsion and SRMs at scale, and Northrop Grumman has the capacity to do so today," said Gordon LoPresti, senior director of propulsion systems and controls, Northrop Grumman. "With engineering, development and production ramped up at the expanded campus, we'll be able to scale operations to produce even more survivable, solid and air-breathing hypersonic propulsion solutions efficiently and affordably, at the pace the U.S. military needs them."

"Whiting-Turner along with our trade partners and suppliers have proudly partnered with Northrop Grumman Corporation helping them expand through new construction such as the Propulsion Innovation Center as well as modernizing and upgrading their existing infrastructure on the Elkton campus," said Vice President, Joshua George, Whiting Turner Construction Company. "We look forward to continuing this partnership through the completion the Propulsion Innovation Center and into the future."

Over the last seven years, Northrop Grumman has invested more than $1 billion in advanced manufacturing facilities across the U.S. to increase solid rocket motor and missile-component production. That includes tripling capacity for tactical SRMs at the company's West Virginia production facility and, over the next five years, doubling production capacity at its large solid rocket motor facilities in Utah.

Northrop Grumman's propulsion heritage dates to 1948. With its exclusive access to an aerothermal research and testing facility, the Elkton facility designs and manufactures solid and liquid propulsion systems and controls for some of the nation's most complex defense and space systems. Elkton is headquarters for Northrop Grumman's propulsion systems & controls business unit, the company's premier advanced propulsion provider for hypersonic, missile defense and space systems, and strategic programs.

With nearly 100,000 employees and over 30 million square feet of manufacturing space – more than 500 football fields – we have the capacity, scale, and agility to drive innovation at unprecedented speeds. Our manufacturing approaches do more than just produce; they accelerate and enhance the entire process from design and development to production and testing. We've invested in U.S. infrastructure, R&D, our workforce, and our supply chain to deliver today and tomorrow's national security needs.