Defense Industry in Melbourne, Florida

Melbourne's defense work in the 2026 federal record is led by Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, DRS Network & Imaging Systems and Extant Aerospace, each named with a Melbourne address in Pentagon contract announcements or SEC filings.

L3Harris Technologies gives 1025 West NASA Boulevard, Melbourne, Florida 32919 as its principal executive offices in its fiscal 2025 annual report, and lists major Space and Airborne Systems operations in Palm Bay, Melbourne and Malabar (L3Harris 10-K). L3Harris also reports that 75 percent of its fiscal 2025 revenue came from U.S. Government customers, directly or through prime contractors, including foreign military sales (L3Harris 10-K).

Northrop Grumman describes its Melbourne campus as a site that designs, develops and tests advanced manned aircraft and battle management systems, naming C2ISR, the U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and the Airborne Laser Mine Detection Systems as flagship programs (Northrop Grumman). The other Melbourne names in 2026 announcements are DRS Network & Imaging Systems LLC (infrared sensor parts and Bradley vehicle engineering), Symetrics Industries LLC doing business as Extant Aerospace (aircraft countermeasure dispensers), and A2G International LLC (contracted air support), each covered below with its award.

Not every Melbourne area contract address is the City of Melbourne. A July 30, 2026 repair services award names Telecommunication Support Services Inc. of West Melbourne, a separate city, as one of 17 awardees on a ceiling $300,000,000 contract for the 415th Supply Chain Management Squadron (Department of War, July 30, 2026).

At least nine 2026 Department of War announcements name Melbourne, Florida contractors, ranging from a maximum $10.8 million Northrop Grumman display order to a ceiling $5.4 billion air support contract shared by three companies.

Each row comes from the department's own announcement for that day: Feb. 6, March 2, April 29, July 8, July 28, Aug. 28, Sept. 17, Sept. 23 and Oct. 16. The table is a selection of awards found for this guide, not a complete list of every Melbourne contract in 2026.

Ceiling and maximum values are limits, not money paid. On the February 6 Melbourne E-2D order, for example, $64,307,666 in Navy working capital funds and $32,712,334 in Japanese foreign military sales funds were obligated at award, against the $198,000,000 ceiling (Department of War, Feb. 6, 2026).

The Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye accounts for most of the 2026 Northrop Grumman Melbourne awards listed on this page, covering radar spares, radio upgrades and the aircraft's software.

The February 6, 2026 order buys 608 power amplifier module spares for the E-2D, with all work in Melbourne and completion expected by February 2029; the announcement says it involves foreign military sales to Japan (Department of War, Feb. 6, 2026). The July 28, 2026 order pays for software development, changes to the E-2D avionics flight management computer and testing to integrate the Second Generation Anti-jam Tactical Ultra High Frequency Radio, SATURN, for NATO, plus 94 modification kits; 99.1 percent of the work is in Melbourne, with small shares in West Chester, Ohio, Ronkonkoma, New York and Laval, Quebec, and completion is set for April 2028 (Department of War, July 28, 2026).

Software support is a Melbourne job too. A modification of $11,931,263 announced September 17, 2026 extends software management, updates, maintenance and life cycle support for E-2D weapon system software under Multi-Year Procurement II, with work in Melbourne through February 2028 (Department of War, Sept. 17, 2026). In a September 23, 2026 announcement, the Defense Logistics Agency placed a maximum $10,762,018 order with the Melbourne unit for mission control displays, for the Navy and for foreign military sales to France (Department of War, Sept. 23, 2026).

Not all Northrop Grumman awards addressed to Melbourne are mostly performed there. The March 2, 2026 $225,109,424 modification for E-130J training materials lists Orlando for 64 percent of the work, Oklahoma City for 31 percent and Melbourne for 5 percent (Department of War, March 2, 2026). Reading the place of performance line, not only the contractor address, is the way to tell what is built on the Melbourne campus.

DRS Network & Imaging Systems builds Army infrared sensor parts in Melbourne, Extant Aerospace builds aircraft countermeasure dispensers there, and A2G International holds a share of an Air Force air support contract.

On April 29, 2026 the Army gave DRS Network & Imaging Systems LLC, Melbourne, a $150,000,000 modification to manufacture and deliver Third Generation Forward Looking Infrared low rate initial production Dewar Cooler Benches for the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle, a long range optical sensor program and the Abrams M1E3 tank. The modification raised the contract to $213,138,361, with work in Melbourne through January 31, 2029 (Department of War, April 29, 2026). The same Melbourne unit received a $55,714,779 award on July 6, 2026, announced July 8, for engineering services on the Improved Bradley Acquisition Subsystem, work in Melbourne through September 30, 2029; one bid was received (Department of War, July 8, 2026).

Symetrics Industries LLC, doing business as Extant Aerospace, Melbourne, won a maximum $147,310,777 Air Force IDIQ, announced August 28, 2026, for ALE-47 countermeasure dispenser line replaceable and shop replaceable units. The work is in Melbourne through August 27, 2032, the contract involves foreign military sales, and two offers were received (Department of War, Aug. 28, 2026).

In an October 16, 2026 announcement, A2G International LLC of Melbourne, flagged as a small business, was named one of three awardees, with the award dated October 15, on a ceiling $5,400,000,000 Combat Air Force Contracted Air Support Program IDIQ for adversary air and close air support services, with work across the continental U.S. through October 8, 2029 (Department of War, Oct. 16, 2026). The ceiling is shared by the three companies, so the figure says little about Melbourne itself.

Northrop Grumman is the largest employer in Melbourne, with 6,818 employees in 2025, according to the City of Melbourne's annual financial report.

Northrop Grumman's 6,818 workers were 16.46 percent of total city employment in the fiscal 2025 schedule, more than double its 2016 count (City of Melbourne ACFR 2025). L3Harris, headquartered in the city, counted 1,778 workers inside Melbourne in 2025, down from 2,532 in 2016, which fits its 10-K: the filing lists the Space and Airborne Systems segment's major operations in Palm Bay and Malabar as well as Melbourne (L3Harris 10-K). The city schedule still uses the name Rockwell Collins, Inc., with a footnote that UTC bought the company on November 27, 2018 and the name changed to Collins Aerospace (City of Melbourne ACFR 2025).

The Melbourne schedule credits the city's Revenue Department and the listed companies as its source, and it does not separate defense work from commercial aviation work at the same companies.

Brevard County, which includes Melbourne, received $6.4 billion in direct defense spending, including $4.7 billion in procurement, in the state's most recent economic impact study.

The January 2024 Florida Military and Defense Economic Impact Summary estimates Brevard's total defense economic impact at $7.8 billion, 22.8 percent of the county economy, with 63,316 jobs and $251 million in state and local taxes; direct spending also includes $452 million in compensation and $1.3 billion in pensions and transfers (Florida Military and Defense Economic Impact Summary, 2024). The study credits the aerospace industry cluster in Brevard and Orange counties with driving procurement in East Central Florida.

Those figures are dated. The summary's personnel tables cite fiscal 2022 and September 2022 data, and it reports statewide growth in direct defense spending from 2020 to 2022, so the Brevard numbers reflect data through 2022, before the 2026 Melbourne awards listed above (Florida Military and Defense Economic Impact Summary, 2024). The same document names Patrick Space Force Base as home to Space Launch Delta 45, which manages launch operations on Cape Canaveral and the Eastern Range, plus the Air Force Technical Applications Center and the 920th Rescue Wing.

For a current view, the daily Department of War announcements and the City of Melbourne's employer schedule are newer than the county study. Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the U.S. Department of War contract announcements, the City of Melbourne ACFR and SEC EDGAR.