A printing press in Niles, Ohio

Half of L3Harris began with ink. Alfred S. Harris founded the Harris Automatic Press Company in Niles, Ohio, in 1895, and for 60 years it made lithographic printing presses. Then it bought the typesetting firm Intertype, and in 1967 merged with Radiation, Inc. of Melbourne, Florida, an antenna and electronics developer for the space race. The headquarters moved from Cleveland to Melbourne in 1978, and the press maker became a defence electronics house, almost doubling in size when it bought Exelis in 2015.

Lanza, LaPenta and the leftovers of Loral

The other half was a corporate leftover. In 1997 Frank Lanza and Robert LaPenta, former Loral and Lockheed executives, formed L-3 Communications with Lehman Brothers to buy business units Lockheed Martin had inherited from Loral; the L and the 3 stand for Lanza, LaPenta and Lehman. L-3 grew by acquisition into one of the ten largest US government contractors and renamed itself L3 Technologies at the end of 2016.

A merger of equals

In October 2018 the two announced an all-stock merger of equals, and L3Harris Technologies came into being on 29 June 2019, the sixth-largest defence contractor in the United States. To win approval, Harris had to sell its night vision business. The company makes radios, satellites and sensors, the Integrated Core Processor at the heart of the F-35, StingRay phone trackers and, through its Trenchant unit, exploit tools for intelligence agencies, a sideline that has drawn criticism.

Business jets that jam, crop-dusters that fight

L3Harris is not an aircraft designer in the classic sense, but it builds complete mission aircraft. With BAE Systems it converts Gulfstream G550 business jets into the EA-37B Compass Call electronic attack aircraft; the first was handed over in September 2023, ten are planned, and the type flew its first training sortie with the 43rd Electronic Combat Squadron in May 2025. With Air Tractor it turns the AT-802U, descended from an agricultural sprayer, into the OA-1K Skyraider II armed overwatch aircraft for US Special Operations Command, which ordered 75 in 2022 and later cut the buy to 62. The first missionised OA-1K was delivered in April 2025.

Rockets bought, rockets sold

In July 2023 L3Harris completed the $4.7 billion purchase of Aerojet Rocketdyne, maker of the RS-25 and RL10 engines. Less than three years later it was taking the business apart again: in January 2026 it agreed to sell a majority of the space propulsion business to AE Industrial Partners as Rocketdyne and to float the missile business, with a $1 billion US government investment. In 2025 L3Harris had revenue of $21.9 billion and about 45,000 employees.

Factories

• Headquarters · Melbourne, Florida — Former Harris headquarters since 1978

People

• Alfred S. Harris · founder of Harris Automatic Press Company, 1895
• Frank Lanza · co-founder of L-3, 1997
• Robert LaPenta · co-founder of L-3, 1997
• William M. Brown · first chairman and CEO of L3Harris
• Christopher Kubasik · CEO from 2021, chair from 2022
• Sam Mehta · CEO (2026)