One of the nation’s largest space and defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, has announced its $5 billion purchase agreement for Aerojet Rocketdyne. Lockheed Martin is based in Maryland and Aerojet Rocketdyne in California, but both have operations in Alabama.
Both companies’ boards have approved the transaction, but stockholders and regulators must still approve it.
“We are pleased to bring together our complementary companies in a transformative transaction that will provide premium cash value for our stockholders and tremendous benefits for our employees, customers and partners,” said Eileen P. Drake, CEO and president of Aerojet Rocketdyne. “Joining Lockheed Martin is a testament to the world-class organization and team we’ve built and represents a natural next phase of our evolution. As part of Lockheed Martin, we will bring our advanced technologies together with their substantial expertise and resources to accelerate our shared purpose: enabling the defense of our nation and space exploration.”
Lockheed Martin has operations in Huntsville and in Pike County and is a partner in United Launch Alliance, which supports the majority of U.S. space launches.
Aerojet opened a facility in Huntsville in 2014 to work on rocket propulsion development, aimed at delivering a new rocket engine to replace the Russian version then in use on American space launches.
