Socorro isn’t saying goodbye to Aerojet Rocketdyne just yet.
After announcing the closure of its Socorro facilities and subsequent layoffs two months ago, Aerojet Rocketdyne has reversed – at least temporarily – that decision.
Glenn Mahone, Aerojet Rocketdyne vice president of communications, told El Defensor Chieftain Monday a decision has been made to delay the move for an indefinite length of time.
“In an unexpected dynamic to the situation, our customer recently approached us to complete certain requirements for the products that we primarily support through our Socorro facility,” Mahone said. “As a result, we have put on hold all plans to transfer our workload, equipment and people from the Socorro site.
“Fortunately, due to the careful redundancy built into our transfer efforts, our production capabilities have not been hampered and skilled teams are still in place,” he said.
This bodes well for the 35 employees in Socorro.
According to John Meason, director of New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC), the contract with the aerospace and weapons manufacturer will continue for the foreseeable future.
In fact, New Mexico Tech President Dan Lopez is hopeful that during the next couple of years Aerojet Rocketdyne will reconsider leaving Socorro altogether.
“While we had felt that it was unfortunate that they might be leaving, we are delighted to know they are planning to be here for the next couple of years,” Lopez said. “Perhaps during that time the opportunities can be expanded for them to stay here for many years to come.”
The EMRTC facility opened in 1985 to support production of Raytheon’s tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided (TOW) weapons system for U.S. troops.
“They have been great partners over the years,” Lopez said. “We look forward to a very fruitful relationship in the near future and hopefully we can convert that to a longer term presence in Socorro. But, of course, it’s great news that we’re keeping them at least for now.”
The company has offices on Spring Street and has a facility located on 300 acres on property owned by Tech in the highly-secure EMRTC sector of the campus.
The aerospace and defense contractor was founded in 1942 to provide propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense, strategic, tactical missile and armaments areas.