L3Harris to invest $500 million in solid rocket motor production campus
L3Harris Technologies, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, USA, has announced it will construct an extensive large solid rocket motor (LSRM) production campus at its Camden site. The company said it plans to invest nearly $500 million across its major production sites to support LSRM production.
“Arkansas is a great place for L3Harris to fortify the domestic solid rocket motor industrial base, with its dedicated workforce and strong state and local partnerships,” stated Christopher E Kubasik, L3Harris Chair and CEO. “Large solid rocket motors are essential to our nation’s missile and strategic defence, and as the Trusted Disruptor, we are strengthening our ability to produce these systems rapidly and at scale, which is essential for current demand and the Golden Dome missile defence shield.”
The new campus will include more than twenty buildings across 110 acres, dedicated to the efficient, flexible and high-speed production of LSRM propulsion for missile defence targets, interceptors and hypersonic vehicles. The campus will add more than 12,000 m2 of manufacturing and office space to the broader 2,000-acre site, which currently employs around 1,300.
The new LSRM production facilities are expected to provide a sixfold increase in manufacturing capacity. The facilities will leverage programme-agnostic equipment that will allow L3Harris to rapidly change production based on current demand and quickly adapt to evolving customer needs.
Clint O’Neal, Executive Director, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said, “L3Harris is a major part of the aerospace and defence industry in Arkansas, and we are excited to see the company’s continued growth in our state.”
“With this capital investment, L3Harris is advancing our national security and creating new jobs for Arkansans that will strengthen our state’s economy and create new opportunities in South Arkansas,” O’Neal commented.
L3Harris has produced large solid rocket motors for critical defence programmes for more than 60 years, to include powering every US Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile ever fielded.
In 2020, the company opened a new Engineering, Manufacturing and Development facility to deliver large solid rocket motors for some of the nation’s most important next-generation national security programmes, including strategic deterrence, hypersonic and missile defence.
The company reportedly expects to begin construction of the new LSRM facilities this year and anticipates production beginning in 2027.
www.l3harris.com
