L3Harris Technologies, Inc.

L3Harris Technologies, Inc. is an American aerospace and defense contractor that delivers communications, electronic warfare, space systems, ISR, and missile propulsion technologies to the U.S. Department of War and allied governments, generating $21.9 billion in GAAP revenue in fiscal 2025. The company was formed in 2019 through the merger of equals between Harris Corporation and L3 Technologies, and expanded decisively with the 2023 acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, which gave it a franchise position in solid rocket motor propulsion.

This is a story about a defense contractor that has positioned itself at the intersection of three of the most urgent national-security priorities — missile defense, space sensing, and resilient communications — while simultaneously transforming its cost structure and reshaping its portfolio through divestitures and a novel government co-investment structure. The file turns on a central question: whether the margin expansion and capital discipline of the LHX NeXt era prove durable as the company plows capital into a missile-production capacity build-out whose payoff depends on budget appropriations that have not yet been enacted.

The bull case embeds assumptions that would make L3Harris one of the rare defense contractors to combine high-single-digit organic growth with expanding margins and rising cash returns. The bear case worries about the $20 billion of goodwill on the balance sheet, the 75% fixed-price contract mix in an inflationary world, and an MSL investment thesis still contingent on a budget cycle that could disappoint. The actual outcome will turn on execution more than strategy — on whether the company can translate the $42 billion backlog into earnings at the margins it promises.