Aerojet Rocketdyne’s New Camden Facility Looks to Future Contracts

Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO Eileen Drake with Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2018, announcing an expansion at the company's facility in East Camden.

Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO Eileen Drake and Gov. Asa Hutchinson celebrated at the defense contractor’s 800-employee East Camden plant Thursday as the company broke ground on a new facility designed to help Aerojet compete for a spot in the Pentagon’s overhaul of America’s ground-based nuclear missile defenses.

Based in El Segundo, California, Aerojet Rocketdyne is widely expected to win a multibillion-dollar slice of an $85 billion program to replace the nation’s aging fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The East Camden project, on Aerojet’s campus in the Highland Industrial Park, is expected to be completed in spring 2020.

The 17,000-SF unit will develop solid rockets and “serve as the developmental gateway to future Aerojet Rocketdyne … opportunities, to include the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent Program,” the company said in a statement, using the Pentagon’s term for its program to replace Minuteman III missiles, the longtime workhorse of America’s ground-based nuclear defenses.

The Department of Defense is expected to seek bids on the missile work as early as this year.

“Once open for business, the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development facility will be the newest and most modern rocket development facility in the nation,” Drake said in remarks prepared for the groundbreaking ceremony

As one of just two domestic makers of solid rocket boosters, Aerojet initiated a $50 million, 140-worker expansion in south Arkansas last August. Defense industry analysts say the company is likely to get some ground-based strategic defense work because the Pentagon fears relying on a single supplier for its solid rocket boosters. Aerojet’s competitor is Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, which acquired rocket manufacturer Orbital ATK in a deal last June.

The groundbreaking represents the company’s latest collaboration with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Calhoun County and the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development.

“The aerospace and defense industry continues to be one of the top economic drivers in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said in a statement. On Wednesday, speaking in Fort Smith, the governor called the aerospace and defense industry “our largest single export category,” comprising “15.4 percent of our total exports.”

He praised south Arkansas’ skilled defense workforce and said the state is “thrilled to see Aerojet Rocketdyne continue to grow in Camden, and we appreciate the investments they make in Arkansas and in our nation’s security.”

The company has had an Arkansas presence since 1979 and now makes 75,000 solid rocket motors a year. Last August’s announcement included plans to grow the workforce by about 100, to a total of 900.

“Our longstanding partnership with the great state of Arkansas continues to yield impressive results,” Drake said.