L3Harris Technologies to expand operations in Calhoun County

Melbourne, Fla.-based L3Harris Technologies announced Thursday (July 17) plans to build more than 20 new buildings as part of a manufacturing complex in Calhoun County that will produce large solid rocket motors.

The new campus will create 50 new jobs over two years, adding to L3Harris’ 1,300-person workforce in the south Arkansas city of Camden, according to the company.

How much the company will specifically spend on this project was not released, but the company stated it will invest $193 million in its overall Arkansas-based operations. A timetable for construction of the new facilities was not released.

“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,” Christopher Kubasik, L3HHarris chair and CEO, said in a statement. “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.”

Gov. Sarah Sanders and officials from the Arkansas Department of Commerce and Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) met with L3Harris executives at the Paris Air Show earlier this year.

“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 Sanders.

L3Harris is investing nearly half a billion dollars across its major production sites to support solid rocket motor production, according to the company. Construction of the more than 20 buildings in Calhoun County will add more than 130,000-square-feet of manufacturing and office space supporting production of large solid rocket motors that can power missile defense targets, interceptors and hypersonic vehicles.

The Camden facility manufactures more than 100,000 solid rocket motors a year, that range in size from the palm of a hand to the size of an SUV.

In February, L3Harris announced it began construction on four new solid rocket motor production facilities in Camden. That expansion effort is part of a cooperative agreement between the Defense Department’s Defense Production Act Title III program and L3Harris to increase domestic rocket propulsion manufacturing capacity.

L3Harris is set to report second-quarter financials on July 24. The consensus estimate is for per share net income of $2.49, with the revenue estimate at $5.31 billion.

Company shares (NYSE: LHX) opened Thursday at $263.97. During the past 52 weeks the share price has ranged between $266.42 and $193.09.