Solid rocket motor testing in Camden. Source | L3Harris

L3Harris Technologies (Melbourne, Fla., U.S.) has announced plans to build more than 20 new manufacturing facilities in Calhoun County, Arkansas, that will produce large solid rocket motors, which L3Harris confirmed are manufactured using materials like fiber-reinforced composites. The new manufacturing facilities will add to L3Harris’ existing site in south Arkansas.

“Arkansas is a place for L3Harris to fortify the domestic solid rocket motor industrial base with its dedicated workforce and strong state and local partnerships,” says Christopher E. Kubasik, chair and CEO, L3Harris. “Large solid rocket motors are essential to our nation’s missile and strategic defense.”

L3Harris is investing nearly half a billion dollars across its major production sites to support solid rocket motor production, including $193 million to be spent in Arkansas, with Arkansas businesses, to support the construction and activation of these new Camden LSRM facilities. Construction of 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. L3Harris’ new LSRM production facilities are expected to provide a six-fold increase in manufacturing capacity.

L3Harris Camden, Arkansas, site is the company’s “Center of Excellence for Solid Rocket Motor production.” Approximately 1,300 Camden employees manufacture more than 100,000 solid rocket motors a year, from those that fit in the palm of your hand to the size of an SUV. In February 2025, 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.