Dive Brief:
- Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies is investing “nearly half a billion dollars” into further expanding its large solid rocket motor manufacturing campus in Camden, Arkansas, according to a July 17 press release.
- The investment includes $193 million to support the construction and activation of over 20 buildings, adding more than 130,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space to the 2,000-acre production site, according to a press release from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
- The upcoming campus will accelerate the production of LSRM propulsion for missile defense targets, interceptors and hypersonic vehicles, while also creating 50 jobs over the next two years. Construction on the facilities is expected to commence this year, with production scheduled to begin in 2027.
Dive Insight:
The upcoming Camden LSRM campus L3Harris will be operated under its subsidiary Aerojet Rocketdyne. The defense contractor acquired the 110-year-old rocket manufacturer and its facilities in July 2023 for $4.7 billion. Aerojet Rocketdyne opened the Camden manufacturing facility in October 2020.
L3Harris initially broke ground on the Camden campus expansion in February for four facilities covered under a $215.6 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense. Signed in April 2023, the funds went to expand and upgrade Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facilities in Camden; Huntsville, Alabama; and Orange, Virginia. The three sites would support increased demand for tactical missiles, including the Javelin, Stinger and the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System.
The DOD agreement falls under the agency’s Defense Production Act Title III program. The initiative focuses on strengthening the domestic supply chain to reduce reliance on overseas manufacturing and address domestic shortfalls in the defense industrial base.
L3Harris has taken action to fulfill its part of the deal. In May 2024, the company announced that it had leased a 379,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Jetplex Industrial Park, located near Huntsville International Airport in Alabama. The $20 million site, dubbed the Advanced Manufacturing Facility-South, is now open and currently supports several defense programs, including the Standard Missile, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and Javelin, a spokesperson from L3Harris Technologies said in an email.
This past May, L3Harris announced that it had broken ground on five new solid rocket motor facilities at its site in Orange County, Virginia. The $41.2 million investment, first announced in April 2024, will include a cast and assembly center. Additionally, the modular robotic-enabled facilities will increase capacity as well as improve efficiency and quality throughout the production line. It will also reduce product travel time distances by 90% and complements similar expansions in Arkansas and Alabama, Christopher Kubasik, L3Harris chairman and CEO, said during an earnings call last week.
The Virginia facilities are set to be completed next year, the spokesperson said.
“Demand for solid rocket motor production continues to rise, driven by global conflicts,” Kubasik said. The defense contractor saw a 2.4% year over year revenue increase to $5.4 billion, according to its second quarter earnings report. Revenue from its Aerojet Rocketdyne segment increased by 10.3% to $698 million.
“Growth, we view as durable and likely to continue for decades,” the CEO added. “Demand is exceptionally strong, and we see significant opportunities for further investment in the business, expanding manufacturing capacity, increasing the workforce and accelerating deliveries to meet long-term needs and to support sustained growth.”
President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield initiative, along with the $150 billion allocated for national defense under the recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are expected to drive further investment and demand for the defense contractor.
The Golden Dome, created by a Jan. 27 executive order, is expected to cost $175 billion and take three years to build, according to media reports. The OBBB allocated $25 billion toward the layered missile shield project.
In April, L3Harris completed a $125 million expansion at its space manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to support the DoD’s need for on-orbit technology as well as the “Golden Dome” project.
The company is also establishing two facilities in Florida. One is a satellite integration facility that will manufacture space vehicles and produce satellite constellations focused on supporting national defense interests, according to a December press release. The other is an advanced microelectronics facility that will support advanced manufacturing technologies as well as packaging efforts.
L3Harris is also preparing to deploy 40 to 45 of its hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor satellites, Kubasik said in the earnings call. The company launched the HBTSS in February 2024, which tracks “maneuvering hypersonic missiles,” and is expected to be the core component of the Golden Dome architecture, the CEO said in April.
