Company executives from the Javelin Joint Venture and PGZ sign a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the assembly of Javelin Poland at MSPO in Kielce on Sept 6. (Lockheed Martin)
KIELCE, Poland — The Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) will be produced outside of the United States for the first time following a new agreement between its US-based makers and Poland’s Polska Group Zbrojeniowa (PGZ).
Signed on Wednesday, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will explore the establishment of a final assembly facility in Poland, as well as the manufacture of certain components of the weapon system, company officials from the Lockheed Martin-Raytheon Javelin Joint Venture (JJV) and PGZ said at the MSPO exhibition here in Kielce.
The news comes when the US and NATO partners remain extremely concerned about their “magazine depth,” particularly in terms of precision fires following sizeable donations to Ukraine over the last 18 months.
Vice President and General Manager of Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Paula Hartley told Breaking Defense how the agreement intends to support increases in current and future inventory demand as well as helping to stabilize future production of Javelin systems for the US Department of Defense.
“Global demand is high, and for our customers to have assured production is important, especially given Poland’s proximity to Ukraine,” Hartley said.
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In May 2022, Lockheed Martin announced they were planning to nearly double manufacturing of Javelin in the US from 2,100 units per year to 3,960 by 2026. Hartley said US manufacturing capability of Javelin remained on course to achieve this significant increase but said any additional production and assembly in Poland would be an attractive bonus.
In 2020, Poland’s Ministry of National Defense signed a $54.5 million contract with the JJV for a total of 180 FGM-148F Javelin missiles and 60 Command Launch Units (CLUs). This was followed by a second agreement, signed in the first quarter of 2023, which will see delivery of an additional 500 missiles and an additional 50 CLUs which could include the new lightweight (LWCLU) variant still in development. The contracts combined are worth a total of $158 million and include training and logistics support.
In a statement released at MSPO, Andy Amaro, president of the JJV and Raytheon’s Javelin program director said, “Together with PGZ, we are exploring a number of opportunities to leverage the resident skills and expertise of Polish industry for Javelin co-production. With growing demand for Javelin, these new industry partners can play a vital role in supporting the production and delivery of this combat-proven, fire-and-forget weapon system to the global Javelin community.”
At the MoU ceremony, the JJV also handed Polish defense firm Mesko its first request for proposals (RFP) for the manufacture of metallic machine components. The RFP also called for the development of “seamless coordination” and processes to identify exactly which Javelin parts could be included in the future. Mesko has 30 days to respond to the RFP, although Hartley suggested work would not begin until 2024. She also said Lockheed Martin would be conducting a site survey of Mesko facilities near Kielce, Poland, late in 2023.
Mesko already has a similar agreement in place with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which dates back to 2020 and concerns the local production of Spike ATGMs. Approximately 4,000 Spike missiles have been assembled in Poland over the past several decades.
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