L3Harris breaks ground on solid rocket motor production expansion

The construction of four new solid rocket motor production facilities has begun at L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne campus in Camden, Arkansas, with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday, the company announced.

The new facilities are part of a $215.6 million Defense Production Act program agreement between the Defense Department and L3Harris to increase rocket propulsion manufacturing capacity in the continental U.S. to keep pace with the rising global demand for tactical and strategic missile production.

“Expanding solid rocket motor production in Arkansas is a strategic investment in our nation’s security at a time when defense and deterrence are increasingly critical on the global stage,” Ken Bedingfield, president of L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne, said. “L3Harris is committed to ramping up production to support the defense of our nation, its allies and partners.”

Key production will be centralized under one 60,000-square foot, “state-of-the-art” facility, the company said. This will cut the distance rocket motors travel during manufacturing by 80%, the statement notes.

Additionally, a dedicated mixer building and complementary propellant processing buildings will be constructed to increase capacity.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, which has been in Camden since 1979, builds more than 75,000 solid-rocket motors a year for weapons like the Javelin, Stinger and Patriot missiles. Prior to the expansion, its Camden workforce totaled more than 1,000 employees in 2023, Aerojet told Defense News at the time.

Since the establishment of the cooperative agreement with DOD in 2023, the company designed new buildings and plans for undeveloped property across multiple sites, according to the statement, and purchased new tooling and equipment, which is already being used to increase rocket motor production.

The expansion at L3Harris in Camden is just one of many efforts underway in a defense industrial park that also includes Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. Just down the road, Lockheed Martin builds the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Launcher, or HIMARS, which have played a key role in helping Ukraine fight Russian forces since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Lockheed is also drastically expanding its production of HIMARS as well as Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, or GMLRS, and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 family of missiles.

Local officials in Camden have been hopeful that expansion at L3Harris and dozens of other defense contractors in its industrial park — driven by the demand for weapons for Ukraine and the need to replenish and rebuild missile stockpiles — will lead to growth in the region.

“L3Harris is building the future of its solid rocket production in Arkansas, and we are excited to see this growth take off,” Clint O’Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said in the statement. “This is a milestone for L3Harris, the State of Arkansas, and the south Arkansas region.”

In addition to the Camden expansion, L3Harris is also modernizing and growing its solid rocket motor facilities in Orange County, Virginia, and Huntsville, Alabama, under the same cooperative agreement.

The company’s updates in Virginia supports increased production. L3Harris plans to transition its production of inert components for missile systems to Huntsville.