Defense and aerospace giant Raytheon subsidiary RTX announced Tuesday that the company has officially broken ground on an expansion project for its missile integration facility at Redstone Arsenal.

The expansion will bring an estimated 185 new jobs to the region, increasing RTX's employee headcount in the state to more than 2,200, while also expanding factory space for the integration and execution of key defense programs by more than 50 percent.

“This important investment in the Huntsville region will help us meet the growing needs of our military customers and service members,” Raytheon President Phil Jasper said, “and it will also position us to accelerate the delivery of our critical hypersonic solutions.”

Raytheon's Redstone Facility is the final integration site for numerous missile programs for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Navy and other defense customers. The facility currently handles the integration of nine variants of the Standard Missile family, including the Standard Missile 3 and Standard Missile 6, and will serve additional defense programs such as the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI).

A video of the high-tech facility can be found below:

The Redstone facility itself began operations in 2012 at a cost of $75 million.

Raytheon is a leading American defense contractor and industrial company specializing in the manufacturing of weapons, military and commercial electronics.

Austin Shipley is a staff writer for Yellow Hammer News.