The Threat

Imagine waking up on a quiet morning in Northampton only to realize your town - known for art, education, and progressive values - is considered a high-priority nuclear target. This isn’t alarmism. It’s reality. In an unassuming building near downtown, L3Harris Technologies develops components for the deadliest nuclear weapons system in existence today. If war breaks out, this small Massachusetts city could be one of the first to disappear. Not because of who we are, but because of what’s built here.

L3Harris’s presence began as Kollmorgen, a local optics manufacturer founded in 1916, which for decades built periscopes for U.S. Navy submarines. In 2012, it was acquired by L3 Communications, which merged with Harris Corporation in 2019 to form L3Harris Technologies, which is now the sixth-largest defense contractor in the U.S.

Today, the Northampton facility develops photonic masts, next generation optics and advanced sensors for the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet. These high-tech replacements for traditional periscopes feature electro-optical and infrared imaging, laser range-finding, and advanced surveillance technologies. They are essential to many of the most important functions of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), capable of launching up to 24 Trident II D5 missiles - each carrying multiple independently targetable nuclear warheads.

These submarines form the most lethal leg of the U.S. nuclear triad consisting of land-based ICBMs, air-delivered bombs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. At any given moment, 9 to 12 of these subs are deployed worldwide, a fleet that carries enough firepower to end life on Earth many times over. 

Each Trident II D5 missile can carry up to eight warheads under existing arms control treaties. Some have yields as high as 475 kilotons, over 30 times the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The entire fleet of 14 Ohio-class SSBN submarines can carry up to 1,276,800 kilotons of nuclear firepower, the destructive equivalent of more than 85,000 Hiroshima bombs. L3Harris’s technologies are critical to making these submarines stealthy and survivable.

The Navy is now transitioning from Ohio-class to the new Columbia-class SSBNs, a $347 billion program. These next-generation submarines are designed to be even more stealthy and capable. At the heart of this upgrade? L3Harris’s Type 20 photonic mast, developed in Northampton. In this case L3Harris technologies and systems play a much more significant role than they did with the Ohio class. To elaborate here would make for a much longer reading. In both cases, however, removing the mast strips the submarine of its ability to remain undetected.

Let’s be clear: this facility does not build radios, traditional periscopes of old or general navigation systems. It manufactures and integrates multiple advanced sensors into a nerve center that is responsible for some of the most important functions of this deadly nuclear weapons system. Northampton is also the only known U.S. site that produces and repairs these systems. The only comparable site is in Bologna, Italy. That makes our city a unique, high-value counterforce target.

Military planners distinguish between countervalue and counterforce targets. Countervalue targets are civilian centers, which are off-limits under international law. Counterforce targets are military facilities and weapons systems, especially those related to nuclear weapons. L3Harris Northampton is undeniably a counterforce target.

If nuclear war breaks out, our city could be struck in the opening minutes. No sirens. No time to evacuate. No fallout shelters. A few years ago, I tested the Ready.gov shelter locator by texting "SHELTER" and our zip code, 01060 to the number 43362 (try it.) The response? No shelters within 200 miles. I tried New York City. Same result. There is no plan.

Some argue that L3Harris brings jobs and tax revenue. But the city only received $283,940 in FY25 in real estate taxes from the facility; which is based primarily on the assessment, not the nature of its work. That same revenue could come from clean tech, biotech, or any number of non-lethal industries. L3Harris is neither a major employer nor a notable local philanthropic force. What we get is a small sum in exchange for a bullseye on our town.

If a business model virtually guarantees the death of our children or grandchildren in the event of nuclear war, why should it be allowed to operate in our community?

Some believe defense work is necessary for national security. That’s a conversation worth having. But L3Harris doesn’t merely support defense. It supports a first-strike and survivable second-strike nuclear capability. It helps sustain a system designed not to defend, but to obliterate indiscriminately on a scale that could end all life on Earth.

That said, it’s important to emphasize that SSBNs are not known as submarines in the traditional sense within the defense establishment. Traditional subs handle surveillance, intelligence gathering, anti-submarine warfare, special operations, and mine clearing. SSBNs are strictly and by design long-duration stealth nuclear weapons platforms.

If L3Harris left Northampton, the nearest counterforce target would shift to Barnes Air National Guard Base, 15 miles away, on the other side of a mountain range. That’s not ideal - especially since Barnes is set to receive nuclear-capable F-35A Lightning ll fighter jets, increasing the likelihood of a nuclear strike on Barnes. But it’s still safer than hosting a nuclear weapons systems integration site in our downtown. 

This isn’t a political issue. It’s not about left, center or right. It’s about life and death. It’s about whether we want to leave our children and grandchildren a city that is safe and survivable, or one marked for destruction.

L3Harris must go. We can and must build a future that does not depend on the machinery of mass extinction. The risks are too great, and the time is now.

Let this be the issue that unites us. Not as Democrats, Independents, Republicans, Greens, Socialists or Libertarians, but as parents, grandparents, neighbors, and citizens. The survival of our community is not negotiable.