Primes are quadrupling interceptor output. Every new line needs production-ready test systems to keep pace.
The U.S. is asking its munitions makers to build more, faster, than at any point in decades. The headlines are about interceptors and missiles.
The quieter story is everything a production line needs before a single round ships, starting with test.
The numbers are big. In early 2026, The Defense Post reported Lockheed Martin and the Department of War announced a framework agreement to raise PAC-3 MSE output from about 600 to roughly 2,000 interceptors a year over seven years. The two then signed a second agreement to take THAAD interceptor output from 96 to 400 a year, according to Lockheed Martin, which said the ramp would play out over about seven years.
On October 1, the Navy awarded Raytheon a five-year contract for SM-6 interceptors worth up to $24.4 billion, with two additional option years, Reuters reported. And on RTX’s second-quarter earnings call in July, CEO Chris Calio said Raytheon had “more than doubled year over year output across our critical munitions through the first half of the year.”
On that same call, Calio put the supplier’s side plainly. Give suppliers a seven-year firm order, he said, and “they will lean forward, they will make the investment,” bringing in tooling and test equipment and hiring ahead of demand. Test equipment is on that list for a reason.
When output triples or quadruples, every step of the line must scale with it. Machining, assembly, and energetics get most of the attention. Test is easy to overlook, because a test station looks like a fixed asset: you already have one, and it works.
But a test station has a fixed throughput. If one station can verify a set number of units per shift, and the line now builds three or four times as many, the math is simple. Either the program adds stations, or untested units stack up waiting.
Three things make test capacity hard to add quickly:
The result: a program that funds new production capacity but treats test as an afterthought can end up with a line that builds faster than it can verify.
"Test capacity" is rarely one box. A new or expanded line typically needs a set of equipment; each piece built to the program's drawings:
|
Equipment |
What it does on the line |
|
Production-ready test systems |
Verify each unit's electronics before it moves on, often rack-mounted and integrated with test software |
|
Electrical load boxes |
Simulate the loads a unit's circuits will see in use, so outputs can be verified safely on the bench |
|
Custom cable and wiring harness assemblies |
Connect the unit under test to the tester, often with program-specific pinouts and connectors |
|
Test fixtures and interface hardware |
Hold and connect the unit repeatably, shift after shift |
|
Control panels and test cabinets |
House and route power, signals and safety interlocks |
|
Printed circuit assemblies |
Interface and signal-conditioning boards inside the tester |
Each item must match the existing station exactly, so results from the new line can be trusted alongside results from the old one. That's the core requirement of a ramp: more of the same, built the same way.
In a ramp, the prime already owns a proven test design. What it lacks is capacity: engineering hours, floor space, and skilled technicians to build more stations while its own people focus on the weapon itself.
That's exactly what build to print provides. Unlike build to spec, where a supplier designs to a performance requirement, build to print means the customer owns the design and the supplier builds exactly what's drawn. For a prime adding test stations, that has three advantages:
Some defense primes say they are adding second and third sources where production is still constrained and looking beyond the traditional defense industrial base for manufacturers. Test equipment is a natural place to start: the design exists, and a capable defense build-to-print manufacturer can add capacity without adding risk.
If your program is adding test capacity for a munitions ramp, here's what to ask a prospective supplier:
Ball Systems has spent 60 years manufacturing electrical and electronic test systems, and much of that work has been for defense. As a defense build to print manufacturer, we've completed projects including:
We build production-ready test systems and the assemblies inside them, including custom cable and wiring harness assemblies, load boxes, control panels and PCAs, in quantities from a single system to thousands of assemblies a year. Customers include Boeing, V2X, Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force.