ELKTON, Md. – Northrop Grumman yesterday opened its new Propulsion Innovation Center, a 57,000-square-foot facility in Elkton, Maryland, that houses 250 engineers working on advanced propulsion technologies for U.S. and allied defense programs.
The new facility expands the company’s solid rocket motor (SRM) capacity across its propulsion manufacturing network while creating additional opportunities for highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs in Maryland.
The investment improves the company’s ability to meet growing demand for tactical missile and hypersonic propulsion while supporting Maryland’s advanced manufacturing economy.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore joined Northrop Grumman leaders, employees, local officials and industry partners for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Jenna Paukstis, vice president and general manager of weapon systems at Northrop Grumman, said the new center is a "critical investment in advanced propulsion" that will expand the nation’s SRM industrial base. "By bringing more engineers and manufacturing capability online in Elkton, this facility accelerates delivery of survivable, solid and air-breathing hypersonic and tactical missile propulsion solutions to the warfighter,” she added.
The center is part of a broader $100 million investment by Northrop Grumman at the company’s Elkton site to increase capacity for hypersonic air-breathing propulsion and SRMs. Combined with other new construction, modernization and infrastructure improvements underway at the 550-acre Propulsion Systems & Controls site, the new facility will increase on-site SRM design and manufacturing capacity by 25% and support more than 30% growth in staffing.
The Elkton campus brings design, development, manufacturing and testing capabilities together in one location. Along with the Northrop Grumman Applied Sciences Laboratory aerothermal research and testing facility in Ronkonkoma, New York, the Elkton team designs and manufactures solid and liquid propulsion systems and controls for some of the nation’s most complex defense and space systems.
Northrop Grumman provides end-to-end production for SRMs and advanced propulsion systems used in hypersonic and tactical missile applications. Across six major production sites, the company’s solid rocket propellant capacity totals about 30 million pounds annually and is expected to increase to nearly 50 million pounds annually by 2028.
Northrop Grumman produced approximately 13,000 motors in 2024 and plans to increase annual production to more than 25,000 by 2029.
Over the past seven years, Northrop Grumman has invested more than $2 billion in munitions-related technology and facilities, including more than $1 billion in advanced manufacturing facilities across the United States to increase SRM and missile-component production. Those investments include tripling tactical solid rocket motor capacity at the company’s West Virginia production facility and plans to double production capacity at its large SRM facilities in Utah over the next five years.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Jenna Paukstis, vice president and general manager, weapon systems, Gordon LoPresti, senior director, propulsion solutions and controls, and Whiting-Turner Construction executives cut the ribbon at Northrop Grumman’s new Propulsion Innovation Center in Elkton, Maryland.Northrop Grumman
