By Ken Bedingfield, President, Missile Solutions
The need for America to ramp up production of critical munitions has emerged as a major topic of discussion for leaders in Washington. Senior administration officials and members of Congress from both parties have recognized the same reality: our nation’s ability to deter and defeat our adversaries depends not only on strategy and advanced technology, but also our capacity to produce the right capabilities for our warfighters at speed and scale.
Public debate often treats the defense industrial base as the primary obstacle to accelerating missile production. To be sure, rebuilding industrial capacity can’t happen overnight – especially after decades of uneven demand that stifled industry investment. The missile supply chain remains highly specialized, heavily regulated and capital-intensive.
However, there’s an important part of the story that isn’t being told: the defense industrial base is making real progress.
Prime contractors and suppliers are investing in new facilities, workforce expansion and long-lead materials. At L3Harris, we are modernizing production lines with automation, robotics and additive manufacturing capabilities. As a result, capacity is increasing, output is rising and competition is emerging. A supplier base that struggled for years under inconsistent demand and long cycle times is becoming faster, stronger and more resilient.
As the nation’s leading provider of solid rocket motors for U.S. and allied munitions, L3Harris is committed to supporting the warfighter and the mission. Unlike a traditional government contractor, our company is investing as a commercial business by building capacity to meet expected demand. We’re spending billions of dollars to construct approximately 60 facilities and add more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and support space across our propulsion production sites in Alabama, Arkansas, California and Virginia. These investments will enable us to double, triple and in some cases more than quadruple solid rocket motor production rates for a range of critical munitions programs.
