Talent, teaming and threats: How Huntsville became a missile defense hub

Video

Friday, August 28, 2026

Talent, teaming and the next generation of missile defense are converging in one Alabama city.

At the 2026 Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Threat Status National Security Editor Guy Taylor talks with Lockheed Martin Missile Defense Vice President Jamin Brown about what makes the region indispensable to the mission.

[TAYLOR] Tell me a little bit about Huntsville. I mean, you’ve been based here now for a couple of years personally. What’s so important about this city in missile defense?

[BROWN] First of all, Huntsville, it’s a great place to live. It’s this unique intersection of talent, of innovative spirit, and a deep commitment to the warfighter. And so for me, when I moved here, it was all about: how can we best support the mission? We find some of the greatest schools around here, people that are uniquely interested in the mission, not because it’s some abstract thing, but because these are their moms and their dads and their brothers and sisters that they’re bringing home. So you find that people really care here. And then lastly, there’s this huge entrepreneurial spirit. There’s this ecosystem of small and medium enterprises. And for us as a larger prime, we need that agility. We need to partner with them and bring them into the fold. So it’s just this wonderful intersection that supports the warfighter in a very unique way.

[TAYLOR] So being a larger prime with a pretty big footprint here, Lockheed Martin has a multi-billion dollar contract in the last year or so really to replenish terminal high altitude aerial defense THAAD systems, munitions, used in the Ukraine war, the current conflagration with Iran. That’s a lot to carry for a big prime. How does this environment in North Alabama create a landscape for collaboration with other partners, whether it’s Northrup, L3Harris, some of these companies that Lockheed is almost leading?

[BROWN] Absolutely. You know, the way I think about this environment is sometimes we compete. But then we team, right? So everyone’s a “competimate.”

[TAYLOR] “Competimates.”

[BROWN] The problems that we’re solving are so unique, they’re so complex, it requires everyone, right? So we recognize first and foremost, we can’t do it ourselves. What I love about this community, people are always looking to partner. We don’t see each other as competition. We see the threat as competition. Once the contract gets awarded, we don’t think about, okay, can we do it ourselves? Who do we need? What expertise does this small business have? What expertise does this new entrant have? And can we bring that together and deliver for the warfighter?

[TAYLOR] Are you focused, really, as head of missile defense, you running operations here in Huntsville at this point, are you focused on replenishing and keeping systems like THAAD, Patriot going? Or are you really focused on the next thing, the next generation?

[BROWN] Well, fortunately or unfortunately, it has to be all of it, right. And so there’s the here and now. How do we get systems replenished? How do we serve the warfighter in the fight daily? But as the threats evolve, we have to be ahead of that. So there are many advanced concepts that we’re working on. We’re partnering with many small and medium enterprises right here at SMDS in the Huntsville area to think about, okay, what does five years, 10 years, 15 years from now look like, and then accelerating those technologies and bringing them to the warfighter.

[TAYLOR] If we’re looking forward, you know, that five or 10 years, what is this challenge? Do you think that an ecosystem like this, there are a few pockets around the country that really support the missile defense industry? What is the challenge of sort of sustaining U.S. dominance in this turbulent world going forward?

[BROWN] Well, first of all, we can’t let up, right? The threat, the adversary, they are constantly adapting. We’re seeing that in today’s set of conflicts. So as we partner with the warfighter, what we’re really happy about today is that we have the opportunity to train the next generation. Not just the next generation of missile defense employees, engineers, scientists — people don’t understand the financials of how all this comes together. Right here in Huntsville, you have all of that talent concentrated on one thing.

One thing I’ll highlight, Guy, you know, for some people, when they think of missile defense and they think of their business, it’s abstract. For people here, it’s real and it’s personal. And this is a place where you can grow up, go to some of the best schools in the nation, graduate, start your family, work on some of the hardest problems in the world, and then get the satisfaction of delivering for the warfighter every day.