Kratos Defense & Security Solutions expands Oklahoma City campus with 100,000 sq ft addition

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a US-based technology company operating across the defence, national security and global security markets, announced on 6 July a substantial enlargement of its manufacturing campus in Oklahoma City, adding more than 9,290 m² (100,000 sq ft) of manufacturing and production space.

Oklahoma City manufacturing campus expansion

The additional floor space is intended to meet rising customer demand for the company’s family of high-performance, cost-accessible jet-powered drone systems, including the Valkyrie collaborative combat aircraft, the Firejet, the Mighty Hornet IV and others.

Kratos says this facility expansion is part of its ongoing investment in strengthening the United States defence industrial base, by building scalable and efficient manufacturing capacity able to deliver affordable, mission-ready systems in quantity and at pace.

At present, Kratos manufactures roughly 165 high-performance jet drones each year, and the new capacity will enable the company to increase output further to keep up with growing demand from the US Department of War and allied customers.

“Future combat requires the ability to rapidly produce affordable, high-performance systems at scale,” said Steve Fendley, President of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division. “This Oklahoma City expansion reflects our long-term commitment to investing ahead of customer demand and building the industrial capacity required to support the Department of War’s modernisation priorities. As autonomous systems become increasingly central to the future force, manufacturing readiness and scaled production will be as important as technological readiness, perhaps more.”

Additional production, integration and testing capacity

Kratos states that the enlarged site will add manufacturing, assembly, integration and test capacity for multiple Kratos tactical jet aircraft programmes.

Valkyrie and Mighty Hornet IV production

Production at the expanded facility will support the Valkyrie model, described as an affordable collaborative combat aircraft with flexible runway-type operations, selected by the US Marine Corps as the foundation of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (Collaborative Combat Aircraft – CCA) programme.

Designed to operate independently, in swarms, or alongside crewed aircraft-while providing additional mass, range and mission capability-Valkyrie is positioned as a new generation of affordable autonomous airpower.

The expanded Oklahoma City operation will also manufacture the Mighty Hornet IV, which is expected to serve as a key tactical capability supporting Taiwan’s defence requirements, reflecting increasing international demand for affordable, high-performance unmanned systems.

Firejet and high-performance aerial target systems

The expansion is also intended to support increased production capacity for Kratos’ family of high-performance aerial target systems, including Firejet. Kratos notes that Firejet enables realistic operational test, evaluation and weapons training across the US military and allied nations. Demand for advanced target capabilities continues to rise, including for the testing and training of missile, radar, air defence, C-UAS (Counter Unmanned Aircraft System) and directed-energy weapon systems, and their crews.

Ongoing investment in US defence industrial resilience

Kratos emphasises that it has consistently invested in manufacturing infrastructure, production technologies and workforce development to ensure it can deliver affordable systems at the tempo and scale required by evolving national security needs. The Oklahoma City expansion is described as the latest in a wider series of investments aimed at increasing domestic production capacity and reinforcing the resilience of the US defence industrial base.

Information from Kratos