TROY, Ala. (NewsNation) — A small but lethal missile being used in Ukraine’s battle against Russian troops has origins in small-town Alabama.
A recent post by a defense reporter with the Kyiv Independent showed a line of American-made Javelin missiles in Ukraine. A visible stamp revealed the weapon’s origin as Joint Venture, Lockheed Martin in Troy, Alabama.
Resident Thomas McConnell has lived in Troy, a town about 50 miles south of Alabama’s state capital in Montgomery, for the past five years and wasn’t aware of the missiles’ production until recently, he said.
“I didn’t know what was being produced at the Lockheed Martin here,” McConnell said. “So that’s kind of cool – Javelin missiles. Didn’t know we were making those here.”
The city is known for being home to Troy University, but on its outskirts is Lockheed Martin’s Pike County operations facility, which employs about 350 people.
“This place … there’s nothing to do. Our movie theater closed down because of a lack of business and then all of a sudden it’s like, oh, there’s war in Ukraine and things produced here in Troy are there,” McConnell said. “You don’t think as a little small town in the middle of nowhere, Alabama, (you’re) having an effect on the global stage.”
The Javelin is considered one of the most sophisticated and powerful anti-tank missiles. The shoulder-fired weapon locks onto its target’s thermal picture and then uses a fire-and-forget system to automatically guide itself to its target after launch. The technology allows soldiers to fire and then take cover.
The Department of Defense says it’s sent hundreds of the missiles to Ukraine already and last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for more.
“Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions as Russia uses without restrictions its entire arsenal against us,” Zelenskyy said.
Production of the missiles is ramping up in Troy in response to the rising demand.
“We want the last thing Putin ever reads to be ‘Made in Alabama,’” the state’s Gov. Kay Ivey tweeted.