Lockheed Martin, Albany Partner on Hypersonic Composite Manufacturing

Updated on August 13, 2026 • 5 min read

Lockheed Martin and Albany Engineered Composites (AEC) have entered into an agreement aimed at accelerating the development and production of composite structures for U.S. hypersonic programs.

The collaboration combines Lockheed Martin’s systems integration capabilities with AEC’s composites manufacturing expertise, with the companies targeting the production rates and delivery schedules required by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

The agreement highlights an increasingly important issue for hypersonic programs: developing advanced structures is only part of the challenge. Manufacturers must also establish processes capable of producing those structures repeatedly and at significantly higher rates.

Composite Manufacturing Becomes a Hypersonics Priority

Hypersonic vehicles operate under demanding structural and thermal conditions, making advanced materials an important part of their development.

But as hypersonic programs move toward broader deployment, manufacturing capacity becomes increasingly important.

According to AEC president Chris Stone, the industry’s challenge extends beyond material and structural design.

“The future of hypersonics depends on more than breakthrough design — it requires the ability to manufacture advanced composite structures at unprecedented scale.”

The Lockheed Martin-AEC agreement is intended to address this transition from development toward scalable manufacturing.

Lockheed Martin Brings Systems Integration

Lockheed Martin contributes its experience in integrating complex defense systems.

For hypersonic programs, systems integration requires multiple technologies, structures and subsystems to work together while meeting mission requirements.

AEC brings a different part of the manufacturing chain: the ability to produce engineered composite structures.

By combining these capabilities, the companies intend to provide a more integrated route from program requirements through composite manufacturing and delivery.

Albany Adds Engineered Composites Manufacturing

Albany Engineered Composites is a business segment of Albany International Corp. specializing in advanced composite structures.

Under the new agreement, AEC’s manufacturing capabilities will be combined with Lockheed Martin’s program and systems expertise.

The companies describe the arrangement as a flexible structure with defined roles and cost responsibilities.

This is intended to allow the partners to respond to changing program requirements and government direction without having to restructure the collaboration for each change.

Moving From Advanced Structures to Higher Production Rates

Hypersonic development has historically emphasized demanding technical challenges associated with extreme-speed flight.

As programs mature, however, manufacturing repeatability, throughput and supply-chain capacity become increasingly important.

That creates a different challenge for composites.

Producing a small number of highly engineered composite structures is not the same as establishing a manufacturing system capable of delivering them consistently at higher rates.

Process control, equipment capacity, material availability, quality assurance and production repeatability all become part of the industrialization problem.

The Lockheed Martin-AEC collaboration specifically emphasizes this manufacturing dimension.

A More Integrated Hypersonics Supply Chain

The agreement also reflects a broader movement within advanced composites manufacturing toward closer cooperation between system integrators and specialized material or structural suppliers.

Instead of treating composite manufacturing as a separate downstream activity, early coordination can connect structural requirements with production capabilities.

For hypersonic programs, where structures may operate under particularly demanding conditions, that relationship can become important when transitioning designs from development into repeatable production.

Scaling Composites for Hypersonic Programs

The announcement does not specify which hypersonic platforms or individual composite components will be produced under the collaboration.

It also does not provide production volumes, material systems or specific manufacturing processes.

Those details therefore remain unclear.

What the agreement does establish is a joint emphasis on manufacturing scale and delivery speed.

For the composites industry, this is the most significant aspect of the partnership.

As hypersonic programs progress, the challenge is increasingly moving beyond proving that an advanced composite structure can be manufactured.

The next question is whether the same structure can be produced repeatedly, economically and at the rates required by operational programs.

Lockheed Martin and Albany Engineered Composites are positioning their collaboration around that transition.

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