Raytheon will expand its $5 billion presence in Texas with a new advanced manufacturing facility in McKinney, creating 500 jobs, the company announced Thursday.

The new facility will support high-tech jobs and construction is expected to be completed in late 2020, according to the company. The building will include 200,000 square feet of workspace dedicated to high-tech manufacturing described as a "factory of the future" environment.

“This is an investment in the talented McKinney workforce,” Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems President Roy Azevedo said in a prepared statement. “It shows we are serious about our presence in Texas and that we are here to stay.”

The $27 billion-a-year defense company employs about 3,000 people in McKinney, according to Raytheon.

As part of its expansion announcement, the company also released a study by the University of North Texas Economic Research Group that puts a $4.8 billion price tag on its economic impact in Texas. In Collin County alone, where the new manufacturing facility will be located, the company contributes $2.6 billion to the local economy, according to the study.

Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, speaks at a press conference Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, in McKinney. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

The company's North Texas presence is growing more rapidly than Raytheon operations in any other part of the country, Azevedo said, employing 3,622 workers in Collin County. Raytheon also operates facilities in Plano, Richardson and Dallas.

"Next year, Raytheon will become the second largest aerospace and defense company when we merge with United Technologies," Azevedo told media and political officials gathered for the announcement Thursday.

Azevedo said the McKinney campus expansion isn't related to the $121 billion merger with United Technologies Corp., which is expected to be completed by mid-2020.

"This is all organic growth that we've had in this business," Azevedo said.

Raytheon's decision to grow in McKinney reflects the work by community leaders to make the city a place where people want to live and work, Azevedo told officials and community members.

Rep. Van Taylor, R-TX, and McKinney Mayor George Fuller were among community leaders in attendance. Taylor, a veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, applauded Raytheon's expansion and told the audience he had visited Israel last week and saw Raytheon's work.

"There are barbarians at the gate. They're out there, they're real. American forces are deployed right now in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, and Raytheon systems are keeping them safe," Taylor said.

Raytheon's McKinney facilities house its space and airborne systems business, which produces sensor technology and electronic warfare systems. Thursday's event included a display of Raytheon's modified Polaris vehicle with a laser system mounted on it that is capable of shooting down drone missiles.

Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon provides military defense products for more than 80 countries around the world and employs nearly 67,000 people.