Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer of the B-2 bombers that the U.S. used to drop bunker-buster bombs over Iran last weekend, made a major investment in Colorado.

The large defense contractor debuted its new 100,000-square-foot facility on Monday near the Centennial Airport  and the Denver Broncos headquarters to manufacture communication systems used in warfighter missions for the U.S. and its allies.

The new Highfield Integration Facility is designed to “accelerate the delivery of ground system capabilities for America’s defense,” said Murali Krishnan, vice president of payload and ground systems at Northrop Grumman, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

It’ll ramp up the production of equipment such as antennas and Conex boxes, containers first developed during the Korean War, used by soldiers who need timely information while on missions.

U.S. forces are often operating in challenging environments with limited connection and need critical information in real time. Communication and data equipment produced at the facility will go from the “Front Range to the front lines,” Krishnan said.

“This cutting edge facility expands integration capacity as well as our team’s ability to deliver for our customers at a critical time,” he said.

Remarks at the opening ceremony for the facility, that’s been under construction since last year, emphasized the timeliness of its debut following the U.S. attacking Iran’s nuclear sites and the war between Iran and Israel.

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“Given everything going on over the weekend, as we transition into a time of uncertainty,” said Lt. Col. Nick Forlenza. “It really just makes known what we’re doing here is important.”

With the rise of major conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, Northrop Grumman’s Brent Swift, director of the mission exploitation operating unit, said the defense contractor is preparing to be up to task to what the needs of the military are.

“Regardless of conflicts around the world, our primary focus is, customers come to us with a requirement, we have the ability to execute through the facility to deliver on that requirement, and being able to do it at scale.” Swift said.

The equipment made at the facility will support space surveillance, missile warning and defense, satellite operations and data processing. They’ll primarily focus on communications through satellites and processing the data on the ground for mission operators, Swift explained.

“The equipment produced here is capable of being rapidly employed anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice,” Krishnan said.

The investment is the latest in Colorado for the aerospace and defense company based in Virginia, outside of Washington D.C.

Northrop Grumman has a campus in Aurora near the Buckley Space Force Base, in Boulder and several facilities in Colorado Springs. It employs more than 3,500 people in Colorado.

“We are very proud to add this facility to the more than 1 million square feet of Colorado infrastructure in order to meet the needs of the many missions we support,” said Pablo Pezzimenti, vice president of integrated national systems for Northrop Grumman.

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It’s also the latest among several aerospace and defense expansions in the southwest Denver metro area in recent months.

York Space Systems is opening another office in Greenwood Village, BusinessDen reported earlier in June.

In April, Paris-based Safran Defense & Space, Inc. opened a new manufacturing facility to build electric propulsion thrusters just blocks away from the Northrop Grumman site.

South Denver is also home to several major other aerospace campuses such as Lockheed Martin in Littleton and United Launch Alliance in Centennial.

The region is growing its aerospace corridor with the addition of Northrop Grumman’s facility, said Abe Laydon, the chairman of Douglas County’s Board of County Commissioners.

“We sign more NDAs than we care to admit lately,” Laydon said, “because many in the aerospace industry have learned that being situated right between Buckley and Colorado Springs might be the perfect place to locate new facilities.”

The state’s top economic official Eve Lieberman, director of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade, emphasized the facility helps solidify the state’s reputation as an aerospace and defense hub.

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“This new facility represents more than just square footage,” she said
”It’s a strategic investment into mission critical capability central to our national defense and it’s happening right here in Douglas County.”

Lieberman added the expansion will also have knock-on effects by bolstering surrounding small business and suppliers in the supply chain and local workforce programs.

“Northrop Grumman could have made this investment anywhere, but they chose Colorado,” she said. “And it’s a reflection of the ecosystem that’s been built together.”