L3Harris opens robotic rocket motor factory in Arkansas

Colin Demarest

A rocket blasts off from a ground launcher, leaving a thick white smoke trail diagonally across a blue sky. — A Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, fired during the Koolendong exercise in Australia. Photo: Colton K. Garrett/DVIDS

A newly minted L3Harris Technologies facility in Arkansas will consolidate solid-rocket motor production and help double capacity for work on GMLRS, rocket artillery made by Lockheed Martin.

Why it matters: Propulsion and energetics have long been a chokepoint for the U.S. — and the military is now facing tough questions about the state of its munitions stockpile and industry's ability to quickly refill it.

Driving the news: L3Harris cut the ribbon on the 60,000-square-foot factory in Camden this week. The company's president for missile solutions, Ken Bedingfield, told Axios it serves as a "blueprint" for ongoing expansions.

"This is one of the highest quantity motors that we produce," he said, adding that the company is "moving on a wartime footing" and "investing ahead of need."

Zoom in: The new plant features robotics throughout — moving materiel from station to station — along with automated casting, curing and X-ray inspection cells.

Zoom out: The preexisting L3Harris footprint in Camden includes 100-plus buildings across 2,000 acres.

Workers there produce more than 115,000 solid-rocket motors of various sizes annually.

The bottom line: "Rocket propulsion is a vital national security capability," Pentagon chief weapons buyer Michael Duffey said in a statement provided to reporters.

Go deeper: Air Force taps GE Aerospace and Kratos for JASSM engine

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L3Harris opens robotic rocket motor factory in Arkansas

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