L3Harris pushes ahead on Arkansas rocket motor factories

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(Reuters) – L3Harris Technologies said on Thursday it has begun constructing four solid rocket motor production facilities at its Camden, New Jersey, site, as demand for missiles accelerates amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

The expansion, part of a $215.6 million agreement under the Pentagon’s Defense Production Act program, aims to increase domestic manufacturing capacity through the facilities, which will include propellant processing buildings.

The Camden facilities include a 60,000-square-foot space – big enough to optimize the component assembly process, reducing the distances some motors travel during manufacturing by 80%, thus speeding production. Other buildings at the facility include a dedicated mixer building to combine chemicals needed for the motors, and propellant processing buildings to support increased motor production.

The defense contractor makes rocket motors through its Aerojet Rocketdyne unit – which it bought in a deal that closed in 2023.

The unit is a key producer of weapon components as the U.S. seeks to replace aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and build an inventory of tactical missiles.

L3Harris has since increased spending on the unit by 84%, investments that have helped improve facilities and processes after years of under investment and late deliveries, Aerojet’s former president Ross Niebergall told Reuters last year.

Demand for arms and military equipment has ballooned as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, with militaries around the world aiming to replenish stockpiles, benefiting contractors such as L3Harris.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Diane Craft)