L3Harris wins major Pentagon PAC-3 award, Camden missile production ramps up

By Wesley Brown, Arkansas Delta Informer Editor

Sept. 8, 2026 – As the Pentagon seeks to rapidly rebuild the nation’s munitions stockpiles amid the wars in Ukraine and Iran, L3Harris Technologies today announced a $4.7 billion deal with the Department of War (DoW) to dramatically increase production of the lethal Patriot missile defense systems, also known as PAC-3.

L3Harris’s PAC-3 MSE motor manufacturing facility at the Highland Industrial Park in East Camden, includes dedicated processing bays with improved throughput and automated digital X-ray equipment, which has lowered inspection and cycle times. 

Earlier this year, the Melbourne, Fla.-based defense contractor broke ground on two new facilities to support PAC-3 MSE at the company’s sprawling 2,000-acre site in Calhoun County. When they begin operations in 2027, those facilities will enable substantial increases in on-site production, improve throughput, and further modernize solid rocket motor manufacturing capabilities.

The $4.7 billion multi-year contract is L3Harris’ largest PAC-3 propulsion award to date and aligns with the long-term framework agreement established with the Department of War in July, company officials said.

“Receiving this contract at unparalleled speed allows us to continue expanding PAC-3 propulsion production capacity to enable a wartime footing,” said Ken Bedingfield, president of L3Harris’s Missile Solutions division. “Supporting America’s Arsenal of Freedom and ensuring warfighters have the munitions needed to deter and defeat evolving threats will continue to be our priority.”

L3Harris’s announcement comes nearly five months after the U.S. Army awarded a $4.7 billion undefinitized contract to Lockheed Martin to support accelerated production of PAC-3 MSE interceptors. As one of Lockheed Martin’s key subcontractors, L3 Harris’s 1,200-employee workforce in southern Arkansas largely supports the defense giant’s munitions program.

Both multi-billion-dollar awards followed a Feb. 27 visit by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to Highland Park in Calhoun County, where he highlighted the seven-year framework agreement with the rocket motor maker and Lockheed Martin to ramp up production of PAC-3 propulsion systems.

U.S. munitions stockpile seeing “unprecedented strain,” experts say

L3 Harris also stressed that the deal is “undefinitized,” DoD parlance meaning that all the terms of the multi-year contract, including price, deliverables and key specifics, have not been finalized before performance begins. Those terms will require further negotiations, military experts say, as the backlog and inventories of PAC-3, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, Precision Strike Missiles and critical munitions for the U.S. military and key allies are nearly exhausted.

According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the U.S. has conducted its “most munitions-intensive military campaign in decades” since Operation Fury began in February.

“The conflict has consumed thousands of advanced offensive and defensive missiles, placing unprecedented strain on inventories of critical systems such as Patriot interceptors, THAAD interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and other high-end precision munitions,” Tom Karako, director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project, said during an Aug. 5 CSIS video cast here.

“As policymakers assess the war’s long-term consequences, questions about the depth of U.S. stockpiles, production capacity, and military readiness have become central to national security planning,” Karako stressed.

Mark Cancian, CSIS’s senior advisor for Defense and Security for the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the U.S. military’s air defense campaign has been largely successful with high—though not perfect—interception rates.

“While some Iranian attacks got past defenses, causing causalities and extensive base damage, these attacks have been unable to diminish U.S. and coalition operations. This has required extensive use of interceptors, with Patriot inventories now under 1,000 and THAAD inventories at about 250,” Cancian warned in a July 27 research note.  

Those diminished stockpiles of PAC-3 and THAAD interceptors, which Lockheed also produces at its 1000-plus worker Munitions Acceleration Center in Calhoun County. In June, the Pentagon also awarded Lockheed  seven-year undefinitized contract action worth up to $35 billion to quadruple production of THAAD interceptors. 

In recent weeks, the President and Hegseth have been so concerned about the sensitive details of the diminished U.S. munition stockpiles being leaked to the media that the Pentagon has subjected top military brass to polygraph tests during recent internal probes, according to media reports here and here.

L3Harris faces hurdles following CEO firing

As L3Harris prepares to ramp up production in response to the Pentagon’s call to accelerate output by investing billions to build 60 facilities and add or upgrade nearly 1 million square feet of manufacturing and office space across the company’s solid rocket motor production sites in Arkansas, Alabama, and Virginia, it still faces major internal hurdles to meet the DoW’s production schedule.

Last month, the L3Harris board of directors fired longtime company Chairman and CEO after becoming “aware of certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the values of the Company as outlined in its Code of Conduct.

“This conduct was unrelated to the Company’s financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance. Following its investigation of these matters with the assistance of independent counsel, the Board determined that it would be in the best interests of the Company to enter into a separation agreement with Kubasik,” the company said in an Aug. 17 statement.

In announcing Kubasik’s dismissal, L3Harris appointed Sam Mehta as the company’s new president and CEO and a member of the board. In addition, Lewis Hay III, L3Harris’ Lead Independent Director, has been named Independent Chairman of the Board. Mehta joined L3Harris in 2023 and has more than 25 years of strategic and operational leadership experience across the aerospace and defense industry.

“Sam’s readiness to lead L3Harris reflects the Board’s robust succession planning and our focus on cultivating talent,” said Hay.

In subsequent securities filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission following the CEO change, Kubasik’s separation agreement signed on Aug. 16. Show he received no severance and was not entitled to payouts from the company’s 2026 incentive plan or other short-term bonus payments for that year.

In addition, Kubasik also forfeited all outstanding stock payments due to him, including two option grants and other unvested awards that could have paid him up to $45 million in cash and equity. However, according to details of his accrued benefits and retained options, Kubasik kept vested stock options worth about $23 million and over 200,000 shares already owned, valued at nearly $57 million.

Incidentally, Kubasik was also fired in November 2012 as Lockheed president and chief operating officer, just as he was being groomed to become the CEO of the nation’s largest defense contractor, according to SEC filings. According to his separation pact agreement, Kubasik was forced out at Lockheed “after an ethics investigation confirmed that he had a close personal relationship with a subordinate employee.”

In Kubasik’s last month on the job, L3Harris also postponed the planned DoW-led initial public offering of its Missile Solution business until mid-2027. That business, now led by Bedingfield, includes the company’s 1200-employee workforce in East Camden.

In a deal that has raised eyebrows on Wall Street, the Trump administration’s DoW has taken a major step into the equity markets by acquiring stakes in publicly traded U.S. companies. In April, L3Harris announced that a $1 billion Pentagon investment would allow the Florida defense contractor to spin off its recently acquired Missile Solutions (MSL) business.

Since acquiring U.S. rocket motor maker Aerojet Rocketdyne in July 2023 for $4.7 billion, L3Harris said it has made significant investments to transform and expand its production operations. The DoW investment, along with proceeds from a future initial public offering (IPO) and other sources of capital, will be used to further a variety of expansion and modernization efforts at solid rocket motor production facilities in Camden, Ark.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Orange, Va.

However, during the company’s second quarter earnings call in late July, Kubasik told Wall Street analysts that market conditions do not reflect the value of the Missile Solutions business that the company has built. He cited more than $20 billion in new contracts, a backlog of more than $42 billion, and sustained revenue and profit growth.

“We have land, we have operating factories, backlog, great financials, a great workforce, and we’re actually making money,” said Kubasik. “And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the recent IPOs are obviously missing some or all of those key elements to a business and the market is adjusting to valuation.”

Kubasik added that L3Harris will revisit the IPO a year from now, noting that most of the cash needed for the spin-off will be available in the 2027-2029 timeframe. Since Kubasik’s firing, the L3Harris board has not provided any updates on the IPO schedule.