L3Harris to invest $1.27 billion expanding Virginia rocket motor plant

L3Harris Technologies said it will invest $1.27 billion to expand solid rocket motor production in Orange County, Virginia, a move that turns a local plant into a much larger piece of the Pentagon’s munitions pipeline. The company said the project will create the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities and more than double the site’s manufacturing space over the next five years, while adding more than 350 jobs across Central Virginia.

Governor Abigail Spanberger announced the expansion with L3Harris on April 15, and the company said the Orange County site already serves as its Center of Excellence for Propellant Research and Small to Medium-sized Solid Rocket Motor Production. The plant currently has 256,000 square feet of manufacturing space. L3Harris said the new buildout will support production for multiple Department of Defense programs and builds on an earlier expansion already underway at the site.

The scale of the investment reflects how urgent solid rocket motors have become in U.S. defense planning. These motors are not a niche component. They power missiles and interceptors that are central to both wartime replenishment and deterrence, including systems such as Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors. As stockpiles have been drawn down, Washington has put more weight on rebuilding supply, and on making sure suppliers can produce at higher volume for longer periods.

That push is already showing up in federal funding. The U.S. government previously committed $1 billion to L3Harris’ Missile Solutions business through a convertible preferred security, a structure the Defense Department described as the first direct-to-supplier partnership of its kind. The investment is tied to a planned initial public offering of Missile Solutions in the second half of 2026 and is meant to support multi-year procurement framework agreements for solid rocket motors, pending Congressional authorization and appropriations.

L3Harris has also been reshaping its manufacturing footprint beyond Virginia. The company said it operates solid rocket motor production facilities in Camden, Arkansas, and Huntsville, Alabama, and that its broader strategy is to modernize and expand more than 30 solid rocket motor manufacturing facilities across major production sites. In April 2024, L3Harris announced a $41.2 million expansion and modernization plan for Orange County that was expected to create 80 new employees over three years. The company later said the Virginia site would begin building solid rocket motors for Javelin and Stinger missiles, shifting Camden toward medium and large motors while Orange County specialized in smaller ones.

Orange County officials and the Orange County Board of Supervisors called the new project transformational for the region. The larger significance reaches far beyond one county: it shows a defense industry racing to scale production capacity fast enough for current conflicts, replenishment needs and the long-term demands of deterrence.