Defense Contractor L3Harris announced in a joint statement on Sunday that the company intends to acquire propulsion expert Aerojet Rocketdyne in a deal valued at $4.7 billion if approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

L3Harris is optimistic the FTC won’t seek to block the acquisition like it did earlier this year when Lockheed Martin attempted to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne. Raytheon technology also publicly objected to that acquisition.

In a statement issued to Huntsville Business Journal, Director of Global Relations for L3 Harris Paul Swiergosz explained the difference between the two acquisitions.

“The FTC decision regarding Lockheed Martin was due to the concerns with vertical integration,” Swiergosz explained. “There’s only two major solid rocket motor producers in the country and I think they were concerned because there would be issues with competition. Because L3Harris is not in that space business, it really stimulates competition. We’re a merchant supplier and Aerojet is a merchant supplier as well so it really looks like a good match.”

Regarding Aerojet’s Huntsville manufacturing facility and its employees, Swiergosz added that they will remain as their own identity.

“If the acquisition goes through, they’ll be their own separate entity. Those facilities are there for a reason and we’re not looking to make major changes with any of the facilities including the Huntsville facility.”

L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik appeared on CNBC Monday morning to talk about the acquisition.

“This ties in perfectly with the strategy that was laid out four years ago,” Kubasik stated. “Starting with the merger of L3 and Harris, we wanted to provide a company to provide more competition for the DoD. The customers want to strengthen competition and they want to bolster the Defense industrial base and this acquisition does it. From a shareholder perspective, this fills in a gap in our portfolio which are the weapons systems. This is an absolute growth market that makes a lot of sense financially.”

Kubasik is confident that the acquisition will help fix some of the supply challenges that Aerojet has publicly faced. The CEO of Raytheon Technology Greg Hayes had recently publicly stated that the supplier was “distracted” and that “Adult supervision is needed there to actually help these guys.”

“The entire industrial base has been struggling with supply chain challenges. I think we have the processes and the controls who are going to improve the performance of this company.

L3Harris was formed in 2019 after the merger of L3 Technologies and Harris which resulted in the tenth largest defense firm in the world in 2021 with $14.9 billion in revenue. The deal, if approved, will close in 2023.