PHOENIX — Global aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman is expanding its satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, doubling the production capacity.

The project, which broke ground Thursday, will add 100,000 square feet to the existing manufacturing facility plus a new two-story, 120,000-square-foot administrative and engineering building.

We're #DefiningPossible by doubling production capacity of high quality and flight-proven satellites at our Gilbert, AZ facility. pic.twitter.com/Fu0CCORaZU

— Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) January 30, 2020

“Today’s groundbreaking event marks an expansion that is expected to create full-time, high-wage jobs locally with potential for additional job growth,” Frank DeMauro, Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager of tactical space systems, said in a press release.

The facility at McQueen and Elliot roads, already one of the largest of its kind in the nation, will produce satellites for NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense as well as commercial customers.

Northrop Grumman, No. 108 in the 2019 Fortune 500, has had a presence in Gilbert since the early 1990s.

In November 2019, the company opened a 633,000-square-foot campus in neighboring East Valley suburb Chandler.

The complex on Price Road south of the Loop 202 Santan Freeway is the home of Northrop Grumman’s launch vehicles business, which was formerly Orbital ATK until being bought in 2018.

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