FORT WAYNE — Citing Fort Wayne’s history of innovation, particularly Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, L3Harris celebrated the completion of a $125 million expansion.
The expanded 95,000-square-foot facility will support engineering, integration, testing and program management for L3Harris’ missile defense programs.
“The new investments and construction by L3Harris in Fort Wayne are a crucial step in making the defensive capabilities of our country ‘Made in America’ again,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-IN, said at the event. “The incoming jobs to our community will boost our local economy to the tune of millions — and maybe billions — of dollars. More companies should follow L3Harris’ lead in returning their operations to our shores and uplifting the communities that made them what they are today.”
L3Harris has five satellites on orbit and 34 satellites in work for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer and the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program. The company also provides mission-critical technology for other space-based defense initiatives. In addition, this facility expansion supports increased satellite production capacity for civil weather programs for customers around the globe.
After April 16’s media event at L3Harris’s campus at 1919 W. Cook Road, space in the new building will be guarded from particle contamination, with employees being required to wear special masks and suits.
“The sensitivity of the payload optics require a clean room facility,” Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of spectral solutions for L3Harris, said.
The company started planning 5-7 years ago, when the Department of Defense said it wanted to protect the U.S. from hypersonic missiles, Jeff Hanke, president of space systems for L3Harris, said. Such missiles can travel at speeds of 5 times faster than the speed of sound.
“Building something like this is a feat of engineering,” Hanke said.
Every 90 minutes the payloads are circling in space through the heat of the sun and then to the cold of space, and the instruments that L3Harris builds must be able to withstand those changes, Hanke said. A large format thermal vacuum chamber stood behind April 16’s speakers, which is used to test the instruments.
In March, President Donald Trump told Congress he wants the entire U.S. protected from inbound missiles by a system like Israel’s Iron Dome, which he called the Golden Dome.
With the expansion, L3Harris will be able to deliver one payload for either missile defense or weather satellite use each week, Hanke said. Ed Zoiss, president of Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris, said in a news release that the facility has the capacity to produce 48 payloads per year. Delivering will begin in the second half of Trump’s second four-year term, which began in January.
The expansion has allowed L3Harris to add over 70 highly skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs in the last couple of years with an average annual salary of $109,000. L3Harris employs over 600 in Indiana.
L3Harris formed in 2019 from the merger of L3 and Harris, has 46,000 employees that include 20,000 scientists and engineers, 25,000 with security clearances and almost 10,000 veterans as employees, according to numbers provided in 2024.
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