L3Harris is giving the public a look inside its new 60,000-square-foot solid rocket motor facility in Camden, Arkansas, and the company is calling it the "Arsenal of Freedom" facility. The company says it is among the most modern solid rocket motor facilities in the world, combining advanced automation, digital manufacturing and skilled employees to double current capacity while cutting production lead time. Solid rocket motors are the propulsion units that power missiles and other munitions, which is why demand for them has become a major defense priority. L3Harris said when it broke ground that the building would bring a key program's production under one roof and cut the distance motors travel during manufacturing by 80 percent. The facility is scheduled to open later this year, and the company says it will make rocket motors for the GMLRS rocket system under a new $250 million follow-on contract from Lockheed Martin.

The name echoes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's nationwide "Arsenal of Freedom" tour, which stopped in Camden in February to highlight how domestic manufacturing strengthens the U.S. defense industrial base. L3Harris says its roughly 2,000-acre Camden site employs about 1,500 people and has supported U.S. and allied defense missions for more than four decades. The company says it is investing billions of dollars across its sites to ramp up production, and it has said it intends to pursue an initial public offering of its solid rocket motor business. The capacity and lead-time goals are the company's own claims, so the open questions are exactly when the plant starts producing and whether the output can keep up with the demand for missile propulsion.