Lockheed's $10 billion PAC-3 deal underscores "unprecedented demand"

Driving the news: Lockheed last week announced a nearly $10 billion contract for 1,970 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancements, the most sophisticated variant of its kind.

• It's the largest contract in the history of the company's missiles and fire control division.

By the numbers: Lockheed is expected to deliver more than 600 interceptors this year, a first. It's targeting 650 next year.

• "Because this interceptor is in such high demand, as soon as we have all the parts to assemble a missile, our workforce works around the clock to put it together, to get it out of the factory," Reynolds said.
• The Army in its fiscal 2026 budget blueprint ballooned its acquisition goal for PAC-3 MSE to almost 14,000.

Zoom out: Dave Fitzgerald, the senior official performing the duties of the Army undersecretary, in August told me the service's "air defenders are probably one of the most in-demand and operationally deployed capabilities we have."

• "Those units get rode pretty hard," he said.

Go deeper: Boeing mulls Patriot seeker upgrades amid soaring demand