WASHINGTON — Sharing of producing facilities and other resources, pooling supply chains, latest opportunities for workers’ profession advancement and renewed stability after three tumultuous years are amongst the advantages Aerojet Rocketdyne’s division president expects from the corporate’s acquisition by L3Harris.
In a Friday interview with Defense News, Ross Niebergall, the newly named president of L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne segment also expressed confidence that he can have the independence to proceed running the Aerojet sector as a supplier of engines and propulsion systems to other engin, including people who might compete with L3Harris.
“I see no issues by any means,” said Niebergall, who until recently was Aerojet’s vp and chief technology officer. L3Harris is “buying Aerojet Rocketdyne to get a footprint within the growing missiles and weapons and munitions market. We wouldn’t need to do anything to jeopardize that growth, and that growth really is, as being a merchant supplier” of propulsion systems, he said.
L3Harris on Friday announced it had closed the $4.7 billion deal to amass Aerojet, a manufacturer of rocket engines and propulsion systems for the Defense Department, NASA and other customers.
After three years of turmoil at Aerojet Rocketdyne — including Lockheed’s failed acquisition and a war for control of the corporate between former CEO Eileen Drake and former Executive Chairman Warren Lichtenstein, in addition to COVID and provide chain challenges — Niebergall expressed relief that the corporate’s period of uncertainty has come to an end.
“It’s unbelievable to be closed, and I’m excited really for the 5,000-plus employees at Aerojet Rocketdyne, that we’re welcoming them into the fold and giving them that stability to proceed growing that business,” he said. “There’s numerous excitement.”
Because the acquisition neared its close, Niebergall said, Aerojet reached out to just about 100 of its most vital engineers and other leaders to ask in the event that they would remain a part of L3Harris. All said yes, he said, and he predicted the newfound stability will improve overall retention of talented employees.
Niebergall said that Drake is not any longer with the corporate, and its previous board has been dissolved.
A top priority for L3Harris, he said, might be carrying out the $215.6 million contract Aerojet received from the Pentagon in April to modernize its complex rocket propulsion manufacturing processes at facilities in Camden, Arkansas, Huntsville, Alabama, and Orange County, Virginia. These improvements were intended to permit Aerojet to extend production and speed up deliveries of Javelins, Stingers, and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, weapons, scores of which of which have been provided to Ukraine.
“Since that’s such a crucial piece for the Department of Defense, that’s an area that we’re going to use numerous attention in the subsequent few weeks, to be sure that we’re supporting that,” he said.
Niebergall said he plans to fly to the Huntsville facility on Sunday to get work going as quickly as possible.
The combination of Aerojet into L3Harris will likely take months — and sure into early 2024 — and the small print of how it should work are still being hammered out, he said. Since announcing the acquisition last December, the businesses formed a corporation called the mixing management office that included representatives from each firms to work out how it should work.
“Now, we’re really starting the heavy lifting of truly doing the mixing that we’ve been planning for,” Niebergall said.
Integrating the 2 firms’ information technology functions might be an early priority, and work force integration will follow over the subsequent few months.
Bringing Aerojet’s hundreds of employees into L3Harris could present latest ways for them to advance of their careers.
“We’re creating a corporation that has quite a bit more resilience and offers people quite a bit more opportunities throughout the company,” Niebergall said.
He said Aerojet will have the ability to benefit from the broader manufacturing and provide chain resources L3Harris has developed over time, in addition to leveraging economies of scale by utilizing L3Harris’s shipping and other logistics systems.
For instance, L3Harris and its latest Aerojet division might have the ability to make use of the manufacturing facilities each had developed on their very own to work on one another’s programs, he said, adding that Aerojet’s 13 facilities and the programs they work on are unique enough that there isn’t much redundancy with L3Harris facilities.
L3Harris will have the ability to offer more funding to its latest Aerojet segment, and make a few of its own experts available to assistance on their projects, he said.
“Now that we’ve pulled Aerojet Rocketdyne into this, we might be … determining what resources can we apply. Not only funding, but in addition people from across the corporate to have the ability to surge and apply to Aerojet Rocketdyne as needed to make this into an excellent company,” Niebergall said.
Niebergall predicted layoffs could be minimal, and would concentrate on reducing redundant positions at corporate offices.
“Aerojet Rocketdyne is targeted on constructing rocket engines, and that’s something that we want to now strengthen,” he said.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.