Harris and L3 form $33.5 billion defence giant

It will be called L3 Harris Technologies and will be based in Melbourne, Florida.

The combination will be the US’ sixth largest defense contractor after Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics.

Together Harris and L3 received $8.3 billion in government defense contract revenues last year.

In all the combination should have total revenues of over $16 billion this year.

There has been a wave of consolidation in the US defense industry

In 2015 Harris paid $4.75 billion for Exelis

In 2016 Northrop Grumman bought Orbital ATK for $7.8 billion.

Also last year UTC bought Rockwell Collins for $30 billion.

This year, General Dynamics bought CSRA for $7.2 billion, Science Applications International bought  Engility for $2.5 billion and On Assignment bought ECS Federal for $775 million.