L3Harris opens plant to double GMLRS rocket motor output

L3Harris Technologies opened a new solid rocket motor plant in Camden, Arkansas, on Oct. 20 that is built to double its production of motors for the U.S. Army’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, the company said in a statement. GMLRS is the precision rocket fired from HIMARS and M270 launchers, and the new site, which L3Harris calls an “Arsenal of Freedom” facility, brings motor production for the weapon under one roof with room to expand further.

The company told Defense Daily the plant can turn out one rocket motor every nine minutes and will cut manufacturing lead time in half. L3Harris says it has already more than doubled GMLRS motor output in recent years, a growth driven by demand since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where the rocket has been used heavily, and by a growing list of HIMARS buyers.

“Rocket propulsion is a vital national security capability. This state-of-the-art facility enhances L3Harris’ capabilities and represents a critical leap forward in solid rocket motor production capacity, ensuring the joint forces and our allies maintain a resilient, responsive, and secure supply chain for precision munitions to support our warfighters,” said Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey.

The plant is the latest piece of a $216 million Defense Production Act Title III cooperative agreement that L3Harris signed with the Department of War in 2023 to raise output of tactical missile motors for Javelin, Stinger and GMLRS. The agreement also funds new buildings at the company’s Orange County, Virginia, site and equipment and digital upgrades in Huntsville, Alabama.

Work for the Camden line is already lined up. On Oct. 12, L3Harris won a $250 million follow-on contract from Lockheed Martin for standard-range GMLRS motors, which the company called the largest quantity ordered in the program’s history, as we reported last week. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor and assembles the rockets in Camden, while L3Harris supplies the motor, the electronic safe-and-arm device and the proximity sensor.

“The opening of this state-of-the-art facility marks a major step forward in strengthening the solid rocket motor industrial base our nation and its allies urgently need,” said Ken Bedingfield, president of L3Harris Missile Solutions.

L3Harris became one of the main U.S. solid rocket motor suppliers when it bought Aerojet Rocketdyne in 2023, and Camden is now its largest construction site. Besides the GMLRS plant, the company is building the Arkansas Advanced Propulsion Facilities campus and two new facilities for PAC-3 interceptor propulsion there. Across Arkansas, California, Virginia and Alabama, L3Harris says it is investing billions to build about 60 new facilities, with the aim of doubling, tripling and in some programs quadrupling propulsion output.

Demand for the rocket keeps climbing: in August, the U.S. Army issued a Sources Sought notice for 133,014 GMLRS rockets by 2034, or about 19,000 a year from 2028, Defense News reported, while Lockheed Martin is ramping up toward 14,000 rockets a year.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who attended the ribbon-cutting, said L3Harris will soon begin producing motors at the new facility.