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 military target. This isn’t alarmism. It’s reality. In an unassuming building near downtown, L3Harris Technologies develops critical systems for the most lethal nuclear weapons platform ever deployed. If war breaks out, this small Massachusetts city could be among the first places struck - not because of who we are, but because of what is built here.

L3Harris’s presence began as Kollmorgen, a local optics manufacturer founded in 1916 that 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, now the sixth-largest defense contractor in the United States.

Today, the Northampton facility develops photonic masts, next-generation optics, and advanced electro-optical and infrared sensor systems for the U.S. Navy’s ballistic missile submarine fleet. These systems replace traditional periscopes and integrate high-resolution visible imaging, infrared sensing, laser range-finding, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. They are not ancillary components. They are central to how ballistic missile submarines operate, remain undetected, navigate contested environments, and execute mission-critical functions.

These systems are deployed aboard Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), which are capable of launching up to 24 Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Under existing international arms control treaties, each missile is limited to a reduced number of nuclear warheads, with individual warhead yields typically measured in the hundreds of kilotons - often on the order of 100 to 475 kilotons per warhead. Those nuclear warheads are designed, manufactured, and maintained at highly specialized national laboratories and production facilities - not in Northampton.

However, the work performed in Northampton is inseparable from the system that delivers them.

The Ohio-class fleet constitutes the most lethal leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, alongside land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-delivered nuclear weapons. At any given moment, 9 to 12 of these submarines are deployed worldwide, forming the backbone of the United States’ survivable second-strike capability - a system explicitly designed to ensure the ability to retaliate after a nuclear exchange. Military planners regard these submarines as the most survivable, most concealed, and ultimately most dangerous weapons platforms ever built.

Each Trident II D5 missile can carry multiple independently targetable nuclear warheads. Across the fleet, the combined destructive capacity reaches levels measured not in cities, but in civilizations. L3Harris’s systems are critical to maintaining the stealth, awareness, and survivability that make these submarines effective.

The Navy is now transitioning from the Ohio-class to the Columbia-class SSBNs - a $348 billion program intended to sustain this capability well into the latter half of the 21st century. These next generation submarines are designed to be even more stealthy, more networked, and more capable. At the center of this upgrade is L3Harris’s Type 20 photonic mast, developed and integrated in Northampton. In the Columbia-class program, L3Harris’s role is even more significant than it was with the Ohio-class. Removing or degrading these systems fundamentally compromises the submarine’s ability to operate undetected.

To be clear: this facility does not manufacture nuclear weapons, nuclear warheads, or missile bodies. It does not mill physics packages or assemble nuclear devices. Those activities occur elsewhere under strict national controls. What this facility does is design, manufacture, integrate, test, and repair the systems that allow nuclear-armed submarines to see, sense, communicate, and survive.

That distinction matters - but it does not reduce risk.

Northampton is also the only known U.S. site that produces and services these specific systems. L3Harris KEO maintains a separate facility located in Bologna, Italy, though this location is largely focused on electro-hydraulic, mechanical, and support systems, rather than the kind of advanced technology related work that is performed here. This makes Northampton a unique, high-value military-industrial target.

Military planners distinguish between countervalue targets and counterforce targets. Countervalue targets are civilian population centers, which are restricted under international law. Counterforce targets are military assets and facilities associated with weapons systems, especially nuclear forces. Facilities that support the survivability, sensing, and operational effectiveness of ballistic missile submarines fall squarely into the latter category.

L3Harris Northampton is a counterforce target.

It is also important to understand that nuclear war is not the only scenario in which this facility creates risk for the surrounding community. Modern military doctrine places heavy emphasis on precision conventional strikes against high-value military and industrial targets identified through intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Facilities that enable the operation, survivability, or effectiveness of nuclear forces are prioritized early in conflict planning - not because they are civilian, but because they are militarily decisive. In that context, the risk to Northampton does not depend on escalation to nuclear exchange. A facility that supports ballistic missile submarine operations remains a high-priority target in any major conflict involving the United States, even without the use of nuclear weapons.

If nuclear war were to break 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 federal shelter locator by texting “SHELTER” and our zip code, 01060, to the number 43362. The response: no shelters within 200 miles. There is no plan.

Some argue that L3Harris brings jobs and tax revenue. In FY25, the city received approximately $283,940 in real estate taxes from the facility - revenue derived from property assessment, not from the nature of the work performed inside. That same revenue could come from clean technology, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, or any number of non-lethal industries. L3Harris is neither a major local employer nor a significant philanthropic presence. What Northampton receives in exchange is a permanent military bullseye.

Some believe defense work is necessary for national security. That is a legitimate debate. But this facility does not merely support defense. It supports a first-strike and survivable second-strike nuclear capability - the most destructive weapons system ever devised.

If L3Harris were to leave Northampton, the work would not disappear. It would relocate. The nearest logical destination would be an existing military installation, such as Barnes Air National Guard Base, approximately 15 miles away on the other side of a mountain range. That is not ideal - especially given Barnes’s role in hosting nuclear-capable aircraft - but it is materially safer than embedding a nuclear weapons systems integration facility in a dense residential downtown.

This is not a partisan issue. It is not ideological. It is about whether we choose to concentrate catastrophic risk in the heart of our community - work together to remove it.

The risks are real and the choice is ours.