BAE Systems announced on Feb. 27 it will lease a manufacturing plant in Cordova, Ala. beginning in the summer of 2007. The plant will fabricate and deliver ammunition magazines for BAE Systems' Advanced Gun System and missile launcher assemblies for their Mk57 Vertical Launching System. Both of these systems will be used as weaponry on board the U.S. Navy's new DDG 1000 Zumwalt class of surface ships.
"BAE Systems welcomes the great manufacturing capabilities and people of Alabama to our DDG 1000 family," said Jim Schoppenhorst, vice president of the DDG 1000 program at BAE Systems in Minneapolis. "The DDG 1000 is an important part of the U.S. Navy's family of new surface combatants, and BAE Systems is the key supplier of armament systems for the ship."
BAE Systems will lease the Warrior River Steel, LLC site which is currently operating as a metal manufacturing and welding facility. BAE Systems expects to occupy the full facility during the fall of 2007.
