The U.S. Army activated its fifth THAAD missile defense battery at the end of last year, manufacturer Lockheed Martin said Monday.

The American defense giant also said that it has been awarded a $528 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to produce and deliver interceptors for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system.

"The U.S. Army activated the fifth of seven programmed THAAD batteries at the end of 2015," the company said in a release without elaborating. The new unit is part of a total of seven THAAD batteries that the U.S. Army plans to deploy by 2019.

Comment from the U.S. Defense Department was not immediately available.

Lockheed Martine did not provide further specifics on the new contract, only saying that the new interceptors will "support a growing number of U.S. Army THAAD units."

"Our THAAD interceptors are on the cutting edge of missile defense technology. With advanced range, agility and accuracy, our interceptors are fully capable of defeating dangerous missile threats today and into the future," Richard McDaniel, Lockheed Martin's vice president for the THAAD system, said in the release.

"Our focus on affordability, coupled with efficiencies of increased volume, is providing significant cost-savings opportunities to meet growing demand from the U.S. and allies around the globe," he said.

The U.S. Army deployed a THAAD battery to Guam in 2013 to cope with war threats from North Korea.

It is no secret that the U.S. also wants to deploy a THAAD unit to South Korea, where some 28,500 American troops are stationed, to better defend against ever-growing threats from North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

But the issue has become one of the most sensitive for South Korea because China sees a potential THAAD deployment as a threat to their security interests and have increased pressure on Seoul to reject such a deployment.

Seoul and Washington have maintained they have never held any formal consultations on the issue. (Yonhap)