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New campus to expand rocket motor manufacturing capacity

six-fold

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Facility to support U.S. missile defense modernization

efforts

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L3Harris ( LHX ) investing $500 million across multiple states to

meet

defense demand

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Defense supplier L3Harris

Technologies ( LHX ) said on Tuesday it will invest $400 million

in a new solid rocket motor production campus in Arkansas,

marking one of the largest such expansions in the U.S. in

decades.

The new 110-acre campus at Camden, Arkansas will feature

more than 20 buildings and expand manufacturing capacity of

large solid rocket motors by six fold.

The expansion comes as the Russia-Ukraine war and

conflicts in the Middle East have spurred demand for solid

rocket motors used in long-range missiles and air defense

systems.

L3Harris ( LHX ) makes rocket motors through its Aerojet Rocketdyne

unit, which the defense contractor acquired more than two years

ago in a $4.7 billion deal.

L3Harris ( LHX ) has been producing rocket motors in Camden since

1979, and began building four solid rocket motor production

facilities for smaller tactical weapons in February. The

location produces more than 115,000 solid rocket motors of

various sizes a year.

The new Camden facility will produce medium and large rocket

motors used in missiles, interceptors, and hypersonic weapons

that form key parts of U.S. and allied air and missile defense

systems.

The company in July said it will expand production of such

motors to support robust demand for arms and military equipment

amid the Russia-Ukraine war and Middle East conflicts.

The company is investing more than $500 million across its

rocket motor sites in Arkansas, Virginia, and Alabama. The

investment is also seen as an effort towards contributing to the

U.S. government attempts to develop an ambitious homeland

missile defense shield dubbed Golden Dome.