Page 88 – Defense Daily

L3Harris Begins Rocket Motor Expansion At Camden With DPA Funds

L3Harris Technologies [LHX] on Thursday broke ground on four new solid rocket motor (SRM) facilities at the company’s site in Camden, Ark., taking advantage of a Defense Department award made nearly two years ago to increase production and throughput of propulsion systems for key missiles.

One new 60,000 square foot facility will centralize production of rocket motors for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) built by Lockheed Martin

[LMT] for the Army. GMLRS are rocket-powered medium and long-range artillery projectiles used for precision strike.

Housing SRM production for GMLRS rocket motors in a single building will reduce by 80 percent the distance the motors travel during manufacturing, L3Harris said.

The three other new facilities include a dedicated mixer building, and grinder and compressor operations to increase propellant capacity in support of different DoD missile programs.

Funding for the expansion comes from a $215.6 million award made in April 2023 by the Defense Department’s Office of Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization for the company to expand SRM production as a result of the heavy use of rocket-powered missiles in Ukraine’s war against Russia (Defense Daily, April 14, 2023).

L3Harris is also using the Defense Production Act (DPA) funds to expand and modernize rocket motor facilities in Orange County, Va., and Huntsville, Ala.

DoD said at the time of the award the funds would be used to increase and speed production of motors for GMLRS, and Javelin anti-armor and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The funds are also being put toward new production equipment, and systems to process data.

Northrop Grumman [NOC] also supplies SRMs for GMLRS. General Dynamics [GD] is in the early stages of developing SRMs for GMLRS (Defense Daily, Aug. 13, 2024).

L3Harris has already spent some of the funds on tooling, equipment, construction, facility design, and digital transformation, it said. The new tooling and equipment have already helped boost motor production.

The DPA funds were part of the $40.1 billion Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 7691) the former Biden administration and Congress agreed to in May 2022 as an emergency response to Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine that February.

“Expanding solid rocket motor production in Arkansas is a strategic investment in our nation’s security at a time when defense and deterrence are increasingly critical on the global stage,” Ken Bedingfield, chief financial officer of L3Harris and president of its Aerojet Rocketdyne segment, said in a statement. “Our propulsion is a key enabler of the “Arsenal of Democracy 2.0, and L3Harris is committed to ramping up production to support the defense of our nation, its allies and partners.”

Space Systems Command Looks for Industry Capacity to Supply PTES Joint Hub Spares

U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) wants to hear from companies on their capacity to provide joint hub (JH) hardware spares for the future Protected Tactical Enterprise System (PTES), which Boeing [BA] is developing.

PTES is to provide military forces with a joint ground platform for protected communications through the Boeing Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite constellation, commercial satellites and future Space Force Protected Tactical Satellites running the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW), an advanced beam-forming technology to provide anti-jam capabilities in electromagnetically contested spectra.

SSC had said that PTES would achieve initial operational capability last year with the expected launch of the 11th WGS satellite, but the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur to carry the satellite is still undergoing certification (Defense Daily, March 8, 2023). ULA is a Boeing/Lockheed Martin [LMT] partnership.

PTES, which has a mission management system, a key management system, and joint hub, “still requires test and evaluation of the full system and its segments,” SSC said in a Wednesday business notice. “Initial Operating Capability will be achieved through JH installation at two WGS teleports at separate locations, which utilize one WGS satellite, in addition to nominal operations using the MMS and KMS. Full Operational Capability will provide worldwide PTW operations using JHs installed in at least eight different WGS teleports and utilizing 10 WGS satellites.”

The joint hubs are to use existing antennas and Satcom support equipment.

“The JH is unmanned computing and communications hardware located at a Satcom teleport that provides the PTW signal processing, reach-back network connectivity, and near real-time networked control to direct the connected terminals,” the business notice said. “Each JH requires site surveys, equipment purchases (modems, end cryptographic unit, etc.), equipment installation, and equipment testing. Production-representative PTW modems for user terminals were developed by the Protected Tactical Service field demonstration and will be separately acquired by each service and by international partners. The Navy Wideband Anti-Jam Modem System, the Air Force-Army Anti-Jam Modem, and other stakeholders rely on PTES to provide PTW ground infrastructure.”

SSC awarded Boeing a nearly $440 million contract on March 1 last year for the 12th WGS satellite (Defense Daily, March 6, 2024).

Parsons Touts Big Fourth Quarter, Full 2024 Earnings

Earnings rose at Parsons [PSN] in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2024, the company reported early Wednesday.

Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $54 million or $ $0.49 a share, up from $49 million, or $ $0.39 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $1.7 billion up year-over-year from $1.5 billion.

For the full year, Parsons saw record net earnings of $235 million or $2.12 per share, up from $161 million or $1.42 per share. Full year revenue was nearly $6.8 billion, up from $5.4 billion in 2023.

The Parsons earnings were outlined in a press release. There is also a slide presentation available. A recording of the quarterly earnings call is available online.

“We are delivering consistent results as we reported double-digit organic revenue growth every quarter for the last two years,” said Parsons CEO Carey Smith.

In January Parsons announced the receipt of a $21-million National Nuclear Security Administration task order for infrastructure design and management support at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Parsons is also a junior partner to the Leidos [LDOS]-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions joint venture providing site services at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state. The Hanford agreement is a long-term contract currently valued at about $4 billion.

Leonardo DRS Finishes 2024 With Strong Results; Begins Dividend, Share Repurchase Program

Leonardo DRS [DRS] on Thursday reported robust fourth quarter results to end a strong fiscal year and the company expects the good run to continue in 2025.

Net income in the quarter rose 20 percent to $89 million, 33 cents earnings per share (EPS), from $74 million (28 cents EPS) a year ago. Adjusted earnings of 38 cents EPS, which exclude certain costs such as deal-related transaction and restructuring expenses, and non-service pension expense, beating consensus estimates by three pennies.

The higher earnings were driven by improved profitability on subcontract work for the Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine—which makes up 10 percent of company sales—improved performance, higher sales, and lower interest expense.

Sales in the quarter increased 6 percent to $981 million from $926 million a year ago, driven by infrared sensing, tactical radars, naval network computing, and electrical power and propulsion, partially offset by lower revenue from force protection work due to timing issues.

For all of 2024, net income was up 27 percent to $213 million (80 cents EPS) from $168 million (64 cents EPS) in 2023. Adjusted earnings were 93 cents EPS, up 27 percent from 73 cents a year ago. Adjusted operating margin increased 90 basis points to 12.4 percent.

Sales for the year were up a handsome 14 percent to $3.2 billion from $2.8 billion in 2023, on growth across the business segments. Revenue from international business was 13 percent of sales, representing four straight years of growth.

Free cash flow for the year was $190 million, meeting the company’s target of 80 percent of net income. The solid free cash flow coupled with a strong balance sheet is leading Leonardo DRS to begin paying a dividend to shareholders and repurchasing stock.

The company will pay a 9 cents EPS dividend in March and quarterly dividends are expected to continue in the near future “but there can be no assurance as to those payments and their amounts,” Leonardo DRS said. A two-year, $75 million share repurchase program will begin in March.

The shift in the company’s capital deployment strategy supplements its “value creation strategy” that is focused on organic growth, and mergers and acquisitions, Bill Lynn, chairman and CEO of Leonardo DRS, said during the company’s earnings call.

Leonardo DRS recorded a record $4.1 billion in orders in 2024, representing a 1.3 times book-to-bill ratio, and helping to drive backlog to $8.5 billion, a 10 percent increase from a year ago.

In 2025, the company expects sales to increase between 6 and 9 percent to a range of $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion, and adjusted earnings to increase between 10 and 16 percent to $1.02 and $1.08 EPS, respectively. Free cash flow conversion is expected again to be 80 percent of net income.

Investments in internal research and development increased by 25 percent in 2024 and will grow about 20 basis point in 2025 to keep pace with the Trump administration’s focus on agility and rapid prototyping to get solutions to the warfighter quickly, Mike Dippold, Leonardo DRS chief financial officer, said during the call. Lynn mentioned the “expansion of our sensing modality, directed energy capability, [and] enabling the application of AI and quantum in sensing and processing” as areas for the expanded investment.

Leonardo DRS’s existing rapid prototyping capabilities, innovative technologies, and focus on affordability will play well with the Trump administration’s defense priorities, Lynn said. The company does most of its business, 84 percent, through fixed-price contracts, another priority of the new administration, and an area where the rest of the defense industry will have to catch-up given their reliance on a relatively equal split between fixed-price and cost-plus contracts, he said.

The company continues to build a new base of business with over-the-horizon radars, winning several contracts in the fourth quarter, and a technology capability that should be in demand with the administration’s new Iron Dome for America homeland missile defense initiative, Lynn said. The company has also expanded its “presence in the missile domain” by winning new work for infrared sensing on counter-drone and other programs with “more strategic mission applications,” he said.

In support of the Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program, Leonardo DRS is supplier of electric power and propulsion systems. Demand for this business will grow as early requirements for the next-generation destroyer show a significant need for more power generation and platform modularity, Lynn said.

A year ago, Leonardo DRS announced it is investing in a new purpose-built facility in Charleston, S.C., that will focus on steam turbines for the

Columbia vessels (Defense Daily, Feb. 27, 2024). The facility remains on track to open in 2026 and is a key component of the supply chain for the Navy to increase submarine production, Lynn said, adding that the Navy is investing $45 million in the initiative.

Carrier Truman Starts Repairs After Collision

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) started emergent repairs in Greece following a recent

collision with a commercial vessel in Egyptian waters (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).

CVN-75 arrived at U.S. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Souda Bay, Greece on Feb. 16 for an Emergent Repair Availability (ERAV) on the starboard quarter of the ship, where the damage occurred.

Exterior damage of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) viewed from a ship’s rigid-hull inflatable boat following a collision with merchant vessel Besiktas-M, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt.(Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Cody Beam) — Exterior damage of USS *Harry S. Truman* (CVN 75) viewed from a ship’s rigid-hull inflatable boat following a collision with merchant vessel Besiktas-M, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Cody Beam)

The Navy says they have assessed collision damage to the exterior wall of two storage rooms and a maintenance space as well as external spots of a line handling space, the fantail and platform above a storage space.

The service also confirmed aircraft elevator number three, near the collision spot, incurred no damage and is fully operational.

Now Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) will lead the pier side ERAV, which includes an assessment and follow-on repairs to damages sustained.

The assessment team will conduct a full survey of the damaged areas and develop a repair plan to occur right after the assessment concludes. The team includes structural engineers, naval architects and other personnel from FDRMC and Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY).

Ships force personnel and local industry will also aid the repair.

“While the ship is fully mission capable and the ship conducted flight operations following the collision, pulling into port for emergent repairs will enable the ship to continue deployment as scheduled,” Capt. Dave Snowden, Truman’s commanding officer, said in a statement.

Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, commander of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG), underscored the group’s units will keep operating across the regions they are deployed to in support of component commanders.

“Our mission has not changed and we remain committed to responding to any challenge in this dynamic and global security environment,” Bailey said.

The other parts of the strike group include Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1 with eight embarked aviation squadrons; staffs from CSG-8, CVW-1, and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28; the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG-64); and three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, USS Stout (DDG-55), USS The Sullivans (DDG-68), and USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109).

Trump Backs House Budget Blueprint With $100 Billion For Defense Over Senate Proposal

President Trump on Wednesday endorsed the House GOP’s budget resolution proposal that would take a one-bill, all-encompassing approach to passing administration priorities, to include $100 billion in defense funds.

Trump’s signal of support for the House’s pathway arrives a day after the Senate cleared a procedural vote to set up consideration of its budget resolution proposal, a two-bill blueprint that supports $150 billion for defense over four years.

President Trump addresses the audience after the inaugural parade during the 60th Presidential Inauguration at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Danny Gonzalez)

“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the [Senate Budget Committee Chair] Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) version of the very important legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it! We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,’” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Last week, the House and Senate budget committees advanced their respective chamber’s budget resolutions that offer dueling proposals for passing Trump administration priorities via the reconciliation process (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).

Senate Republicans were first out of the gate with their budget resolution, while House’s efforts were stalled, and rolled out a two-step proposal that would start with a defense-border security-energy bill before taking on a second measure focused on tax and spending cuts (Defense Daily, Feb. 7).

The Senate voted 50-47 on Tuesday evening to move to floor debate on the budget resolution, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joining all Democrats in opposing the procedural measure having stated the proposal does not go far enough in its spending cuts.

“It’s time to act on the decisive mandate the American people gave to President Trump in November,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a social media post on Tuesday, before Trump offered his endorsement for the House’s approach. “Securing the border, rebuilding our defense, and unleashing American energy. That starts this week with passing Chairman Lindsey Graham’s budget.”

The House GOP’s budget resolution, rolled out last week, offers a one-bill approach for reconciliation that would support $300 billion in total new spending related to defense and border security priorities and includes a $4 trillion debt limit increase and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts instituted by the first Trump term (Defense Daily, Feb. 12).

The reconciliation process would allow the Senate, when the bill gets there, to pass billions of dollars in budget-related Trump administration priorities without requiring the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster, while the House will require a near-unified GOP caucus to support the measure facing likely unanimous Democratic opposition.

The House is expected to bring up its budget resolution for a vote when the lower chamber returns next week.

BWXT Announces $2.1 Billion in Naval Nuclear Reactor Contracts

BWX Technologies [BWXT] has been awarded U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts, worth a total of $2.1 billion, to manufacture reactor components, the company said Wednesday.

The BWXT Nuclear Operations Group will manufacture naval nuclear reactor components and procure materials for Columbia and Virginia-class submarines, according to company

press release. The lifespan of the contracts extend until 2030.

These recent contracts complement a $300 million fuel contract obtained from Nuclear Fuel Services, a subsidiary of BWXT, in October 2023.

“For more than 70 years, BWXT has proudly supported the U.S. Navy’s mission to defend freedom and uphold security across the globe,” Gary Camper, BWXT Nuclear Operations Group’s president, said in the release. “These contracts represent not just our unmatched expertise in naval nuclear power but also our dedication to empowering the Navy with the tools needed to ensure the seas remain free and open.”

RAND Study Discusses Cellular Networks As an Aid in Locating/Jamming Mobile SAMs

Locating and jamming Russian and Chinese mobile surface-to-air missile radars in a defense of the Baltic states and Taiwan could become easier with allied use of 4G and 5G cellular networks, according to RAND researchers.

“Taiwan is over 50 percent 5G today, with the rest using 4G,” according to Timothy Bond, a senior fellow at RAND and the co-author of a new report, Harnessing 5G-Era Innovations: Preparations Allies Could Make to Defend Against Attack.

“The Baltics are now mainly 4G, but advanced 4G systems could likely address the most important radars and jammers,” Bond wrote in an email.

“Many of the key Russian air defense radars and – importantly – the GPS jammers operate in the ‘L-band’ at frequencies between 1 – 2 GHz and the ‘S-band’ (2-4 GHz),” he wrote. “4G systems operate up to 2.6 GHz (and potentially a bit higher) and should be programmable to detect and locate many of the Russian radars and jammers. 5G systems have two advantages: one coming from hardware, the other from software. The new 5G hardware is being designed to utilize a broader range of frequencies than the existing 4G – so it could detect even more air defense radars operating at higher frequencies. The 4G hardware should be able to target the most important radars and jammers – so this concept could be deployed now on existing 4G hardware.”

“The 5G software is even more important than the hardware,” according to Bond. “Among other things, it provides ways to ensure network continuity even if individual towers are destroyed. In the United States, the 5G software can be run on 4G systems. It should be possible to do the same thing in the Baltics or Taiwan – so 4G systems can provide a portion of the 5G capabilities. It should be possible to reconfigure 4G systems in the Baltics and Taiwan to today to target the most important radars and jammers. Reprogramming the 4G systems would have to be done in a way that minimizes disruption to commercial users, so that will take some time, but a crash program might be able to gain most of the benefits of the concepts we present. As 5G systems are deployed, they can be programmed to extend these capabilities across a broader range of military threats.”

In the war in Ukraine, the Russian military has jammed GPS signals, used for such weapons as Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).

“The Russians have used their extensive fleet of jamming systems to disrupt the GPS receiver that guides the GMLRS warhead to its intended target,” according to Bond. “This is a problem because the Ukrainians do not have a network able to rapidly detect and target the jammer. This is where our concept comes in. Once the jammer ‘lights up’ it will expose its location. Even better, the jammer effectively becomes a beacon that the 5G network could use to guide GMLRS (or drones) to destroy it. This forces the jammer into a dilemma: keep jamming the incoming GMLRS – and face certain destruction — or save itself and let the air defenses be attacked.”

In the event of a Russian invasion of the Baltics, NATO would likely rely on its 4,000 fighter aircraft to destroy Russian armor.

“Destroying or suppressing Russian SAMs would enable NATO non-low observable airpower to directly attack advancing Russian armored forces,” according to the RAND report. “If NATO ground forces can delay Russian formations and NATO airpower can bring its full weight to bear by Day 3 of an invasion then advancing Russian armies could be stopped short of the Baltic capitals of Riga and Tallinn and the important port of Klaipeda. These cities are particularly important as they represent two of the Baltics’ national capitals and are important ports for NATO resupply and reinforcements.”

Time difference of arrival (TDOA) sensors “could be mounted on cell towers and so use their height, electrical power, and communications connections,” the report said. “Cell towers could be grouped into zones to target and kill advancing SAM radars. A key contribution that 5G cellular protocols could make is to use mobile edge clouds to establish a string of consecutive kill zones along major invasion routes. Partisans, surveillance cameras, and drones could be employed as supporting concepts. These concepts would complement TDOA networks to track and target SAM radars that remain silent or otherwise survive an initial attack made through TDOA targeting.”

HASC Chair Endorses Trump’s Call For NATO Allies To Spend 5% Of GDP On Defense

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday he supports President Trump’s call to increase the NATO burden sharing requirement for member nations to five percent of gross domestic product on defense.

“While I continue to advocate for a significant increase in U.S. defense spending, America’s allies and partners must do the same with an equal sense of urgency,” Rogers said in a statement. “The U.S. remains committed to NATO but NATO’s European and Canadian allies must invest significantly more in our collective defense.”

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) at the conclusion of the House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the FY ’24 NDAA. Photo: screenshot of livestream.

Rogers “urged” NATO allies to spend more after returning from the Munich Security Conference and following previous remarks that his focus as HASC chair for this Congress will be getting U.S. defense spending above four percent of GDP (Defense Daily, Jan. 15).

Trump said last month he plans to ask NATO nations to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP, an increase from the current two percent burden sharing requirement that 23 of the 32 member nations currently meet (Defense Daily, Jan. 23).

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters last week NATO’s current burden sharing goal for member nations to spend two percent of GDP on defense is “a start, as President Trump has said, but it’s not enough,” adding that the U.S.’ current mark of around 3.4 percent of GDP is a “very robust investment.”

Trump, however, said last Thursday he intends to meet with the leaders of China and Russia to propose that all three nations agree to cut their military budgets “in half,” which stands in stark contrast to his own prior remarks and the view among senior GOP lawmakers that the U.S., and its NATO allies should push to boost defense spending (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).

“At some point when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say, ‘There’s no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on [the] military. There’s no reason for you to be spending $400 billion,’” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And I’m going to say we can spend this on other things. We don’t have to spend this on [the] military.”

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has previously detailed an agenda to boost U.S. defense spending to five percent of GDP, likely pushing the Pentagon’s topline over the trillion-dollar mark (Defense Daily, May 29 2024).

AFGSC Conducts Test of Unarmed Minuteman III

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said on Wednesday that it conducted a routine, reliability flight test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile at 1 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

As in previous tests, the reentry vehicle traveled about 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll.

In November, the Department of the Air Force conducted a test of multiple warheads on Minuteman III (Defense Daily, Nov. 7, 2024).

On Wednesday, Vandenberg’s 377th Test and Evaluation Group, DoD’s ICBM test organization, “collected and analyzed performance and other key data points to evaluate current missile system competencies,” Col. Dustin Harmon, the group commander, said in an AFGSC statement. “This allows our team to analyze and report accuracy and reliability for the current system while validating projected missile system improvements. The data we collect and analyze is crucial for maintaining Minuteman III while we pave the way for Sentinel.”

The Boeing [BA] Minuteman III, which uses the W78 and W87 warheads, is to be replaced by the Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel in the mid- to late-2030s.

A significant question for the Sentinel program will be the feasibility and extent of re-using equipment, including Minuteman siloes, fielded between 1962 and 1967, to house the thicker Sentinel missiles. Fiber optic, high-bandwidth cables to replace the Minuteman III’s underground network of the copper wired Hardened Intersite Cable System may allow a halving of the number of ICBM Launch Control Centers from the 45 now under the three ICBM bases.

In January last year, the Department of the Air Force said that Sentinel had breached Nunn-McCurdy guidelines, primarily due to construction design changes, and the Air Force last summer rescinded the Sentinel Milestone B engineering and manufacturing development go ahead from 2020 (Defense Daily, July 8, 2024).