Aerojet’s Merger With L3Harris Is Crucial To Preserving Competition In Large Solid Rocket Motors (From Forbes)

Northrop Grumman dominates the domestic market for large solid rocket motors. It is anybody’s guess whether Aerojet can hang on indefinitely with a narrow slice of the market, or whether Northrop Grumman will end up owning a monopoly. Against that backdrop, the L3Harris bid to merge with Aerojet is a godsend for a Pentagon seeking to preserve competition in large SRMs. L3Harris is basically an electronics company with no role in building missiles or space boosters. Thus, absorbing Aerojet would raise no antitrust issues, either horizontally or vertically, in the industry’s structure. Nor is there a question of scale. Aerojet is so small that L3Harris would remain the number-six ranked Pentagon contractor. There would be no change in how many missile providers or large SRM suppliers the Pentagon could choose from. I have written more on this subject here.