Boeing [BA] last week said it has begun construction on a new secure facility for its Phantom Works advanced research and prototyping organization that will house post-assembly phases of future military aircraft production.
The Advanced Coatings Center on the site of Boeing’s defense headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., continues the company’s support of its “proprietary programs and kind of the next wave of where we think warfighter needs are going for the United States Air Force and other services like the Navy, and supporting their programs,” Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager for Air Dominance at Boeing and the company’s senior site director for the St. Louis region, told reporters on May 25 during a visit to the company’s defense headquarters.
The coatings work that will be done in the new center is classified, Nordlund said.
The 47,500-square-foot facility is expected to be operational in 2025. In the past 10 years, Boeing has spent nearly $1 billion in upgrades and new facilities in St. Louis with more on the way, in addition to the Advanced Coatings Center, he said.
“We have other things in the works that we hope to be sharing in the near future, but we’re on a steady diet of investments that we’re going to continue to make to enhance our capacity, enhance the industrial base capacity [for] what we think that needs are going forward,” he said. The move by the U.S. away from the asymmetric threats against less technologically capable foes to confronting more technically adept adversaries is driving the new investments, he said.
“As we pivot toward future programs, Boeing’s defense business is in the midst of one of the most significant investments in new facilities in our history,” Nordlund said in a statement. “This investment is not only to win new future franchise programs but, more importantly, to enable the United States to outpace increasingly capable and aggressive adversaries. We are revolutionizing how aircraft are designed, built and delivered because the threats demand it.”