The Inflection Point
Modern conflict is reshaping how nations prepare for and sustain military operations. We are at an inflection point in history, a pivotal moment when the ability to generate combat power will depend not only on fielding the world’s most advanced capabilities, but on delivering them at the speed, scale and affordability today’s security environment demands. The United States and its allies face increasingly complex and rapidly evolving threats that require industry to meet the moment through innovation and a renewed focus on producibility. The need is clear: we must field capable, affordable precision munitions to counter low-cost threats at scale while also preserving the industrial capacity to produce the systems needed to address the most sophisticated challenges. This isn’t a future problem – it’s happening now and it requires immediate action.
Built for This Moment
At L3Harris, we have dedicated years preparing to address this challenge. While the defense community now urgently seeks solutions for affordable mass, we have been maturing and evolving a portfolio of capable, affordable unmanned aerial vehicles. With more than 1,200 vehicles delivered, we are leveraging proven capabilities to rapidly scale production and meet the growing need.
Rethinking Defense Acquisition
For decades, defense acquisition has largely focused on exquisite capability, often at the expense of cost, schedule and production scale. Today, the Department of War has shifted its focus toward delivering capability faster and at greater volume, and industry must be prepared to meet that demand. The challenge is not simply producing affordable mass capabilities, but sustaining the combat mass required to meet the mission in prolonged operations.
Achieving that goal will require a different acquisition approach, one that provides predictable demand and enables services and allied nations to aggregate requirements. Those commitments give industry the confidence to invest in production capacity, reduce unit costs and deliver capability at the operational scale modern conflicts demand. The future force will require both advanced, high-end capabilities and affordable munitions, such as launched effects vehicles like L3Harris’ Red Wolf and Green Wolf, produced in the quantities needed to sustain combat operations.
Innovation by Design
The path forward is clear: industry must prioritize not just performance, but producibility, modularity and cost-effectiveness from the outset. Meeting this challenge requires a deliberate focus on strengthening our supply base and strategic partnerships to deliver at speed and scale. Our work in launched effects demonstrates what’s possible when these principles guide development from day one. We’ve taken an iterative approach informed by lessons learned across multiple programs. We recognized early that the future fight will demand solutions specifically tailored to meet distinct operational requirements at volume. Through investment in innovation, we bring advanced capabilities to the table by offering high-altitude, high-speed performance to address that need.
From Prototype to Production
L3Harris’ launched effects portfolio comes from a pedigree of proven capabilities and decades of experience. In our Wolf Pack family, we deliver proven maturity, with more than 50 proven flight tests leveraging rotary-wing, fixed-wing and ground-launched capability. We’ve learned what it takes to move from prototype to volume manufacturing, and we’ve built the infrastructure to sustain it. These investments position us to scale production and meet customer demand signals that include quantities of 1,000 systems per year or more.
Designed for Affordability
Achieving affordable mass requires deliberate design choices from the outset. L3Harris systems are built with modular architectures that enable seamless integration across air, ground and maritime platforms while improving producibility. By incorporating commercial components where appropriate and designing for rapid upgrades, we’ve created systems that are both operationally relevant and delivered at a lower cost.
Delivering Today
This approach isn’t about sacrificing capability or quality – it’s about making informed tradeoffs to deliver operationally relevant performance at a price and scale that enable affordable mass. We’re building systems that can be produced in sufficient numbers to matter operationally, providing commanders with the depth to sustain campaigns and respond to multiple contingencies simultaneously. That’s the standard the current threat environment demands.
Capable, affordable munitions bridge the gap between high-end performance and the need for greater combat mass. They provide a path to maintaining stockpiles that can be employed at an operationally relevant scale without compromising capability or fiscal sustainability. This isn’t a theoretical concept – it’s what we’re delivering today, and we’re ready to lead the way forward.
About the Author
Quinlan Lyte is the President, Advanced Effects, Missile Solutions at L3Harris, where he leads a portfolio spanning sensing, precision weapons and seekers, advanced electronic warfare systems, resilient navigation and weapons release systems. The portfolio brings together decades of defense experience focused on delivering effective, scalable solutions for today’s mission needs.
