L3Harris to Expand Solid Rocket Motor Production in Arkansas

 L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders have announced plans to construct an extensive large solid rocket motor (LSRM) production campus at the company’s site in Camden. 

L3Harris is investing nearly half a billion dollars across its major production sites to support solid rocket motor 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,” said Christopher E. Kubasik, Chair and CEO, L3Harris. “Large solid rocket motors are essential to our nation’s missile and strategic defense, 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 defense shield.”

The new campus will include more than 20 buildings across 110 acres, dedicated to the efficient, flexible and high-speed production of LSRM propulsion for missile defense targets, interceptors and hypersonic vehicles. The campus will add more than 130,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space to the broader 2,000-acre energetic production site, which employs ~1,300 local team members. 

“After a great meeting with the CEO of L3Harris, Chris Kubasik, at the Paris Air Show last month and highlighting all that Arkansas has to offer, we are proud to welcome their new manufacturing facilities to South Arkansas and excited they are helping to position Arkansas as the arsenal of democracy,” said Gov. Sanders. “Our state ranks best in the nation for cost-of-living, number one for inbound movers, and topped the country in economic growth for two quarters in a row – so it’s no surprise that major companies like L3Harris continue to invest in our state and drive our number one export industry, aerospace and defense. Thank you, Chris and L3Harris, for choosing to make Arkansas home.” 

L3Harris’ new LSRM production facilities are expected to provide a six-fold increase in manufacturing capacity. The facilities will leverage program agnostic equipment that will allow L3Harris to rapidly change production based on current demand and quickly adapt to evolving customer needs. 

“L3Harris is a major part of the aerospace and defense industry in Arkansas, and we are excited to see the company’s continued growth in our state,” said Clint O’Neal, Executive Director, Arkansas Economic Development Commission. “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.”

L3Harris has produced large solid rocket motors for critical defense programs for more than 60 years, to include powering every U.S. Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ever fielded. 

In 2020, the company opened a new 17,000 square foot Engineering, Manufacturing and Development facility to deliver large solid rocket motors for some of the nation’s most important next-generation national security programs, including strategic deterrence, hypersonic and missile defense.

The company expects to begin construction of the new LSRM facilities this year and anticipates production beginning in 2027.