Northrop Grumman said this week that it is adding hundreds of jobs to the 5,000 the company now has working on the LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile.
A ground breaking ceremony was recently held for a new building at the Roy Innovation Center (RIC) in Utah, according to a Northrop Grumman press release Tuesday. Once completed, the new facility “brings the RIC campus to a total of six state-of-the-art buildings and more than 1.1 million square feet of office space,” the company said in the release. “Construction of the new ‘Legacy Building’ begins this summer and will be completed by 2028.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was among those attending the ground breaking, the company said, adding that it is the largest defense company in Utah and “employs over 11,000 Utahns and, according to a recent study, supports more than 46,000 jobs across the state, generating over $12.4 billion for the economy.”
The Air Force is restructuring the Sentinel program after a critical Nunn-McCurdy cost breach in January 2024, and the Government Accountability Office’s annual weapon systems assessment this month said that the program faces considerable uncertainty amid ongoing design maturation, the complexity of building missile infrastructure across multiple states, and supply chain and workforce challenges that could further affect cost and schedule.
The report indicates Sentinel remains one of the Defense Department’s highest-risk acquisition efforts despite the restructuring process intended to stabilize the program. In the early 2030s, Sentinel is to begin fielding to replace the Boeing-made Minuteman III.
“Over the past five years, Northrop Grumman has invested $13.5 billion in infrastructure and R&D [research and development], including $2 billion dedicated to solid rocket motor capacity and capabilities, that accelerate and scale production for the Sentinel program and strengthen the broader strategic deterrence and space launch industrial base,” Northrop Grumman said.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.