Defense Secretary Hegseth visits Rocket Lab facility in Long Beach on ‘Arsenal of Freedom’ tour

Work on the production floor at Rocket Lab’s Engine Development Complex in Long Beach halted on Friday afternoon, Jan. 9, as more than 200 employees cheered and welcomed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who visited the space company.

Hegseth made Rocket Lab’s manufacturing facility one of his stops in his nationwide tour of defense industrial bases, dubbed the “Arsenal of Freedom” tour. The monthlong campaign aims to promote one of the Department of Defense’s top priorities: rebuilding the military by engaging with the defense industrial base at various stops throughout the country, according to the Defense Department.

Rocket Lab wrapped the tour’s first week, officials said, as it is one of the “front and center” companies that are part of the effort, Hegseth said. On Monday, the tour stopped at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, which is building next-generation submarines.

Rocket Lab is a publicly traded space company that manufactures and launches advanced rockets, satellites and spacecraft components, according to the company’s website. Its Electron launch vehicle is the world’s leading small rocket; it was first launched in 2017, and is now the second-most frequently launched U.S. rocket behind those from SpaceX.

The Electron rocket has successfully deployed satellites for NASA, the Space Force, the Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. Rocket Lab also uses a suborbital variant of Electorn to enable rapid, reliable and cost-effective suborbital hypersonic test launch capability for the U.S. government, officials said. The company employs 2,500 people and is headquartered in Long Beach.

Before addressing the crowd of Rocket Lab employees, Hegseth toured the production floor for the Rutherford and Archimedes rocket engines with company founder and CEO Peter Beck.

“I’ve had the privilege to show the secretary around,” Beck told employees before Hegseth took the stage. “He is leading the change to revigorate the national industrial base and create a more effective Department of War, one that goes faster and leans on commercial companies just like ours.

“Your efforts are the backbone to America’s national security and the space program,” Beck added, “and I’m thrilled that the secretary has been able to see all your work first-hand and up close, so congratulations.”

The facility erupted in cheers, and “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC became the soundtrack to which Hegseth walked out and shook hands with some of the space company’s employees.

“What impressive scale and precision on the projects being engineered here, the sort of groundbreaking initiatives that make up the front lines of American industry,” Hegseth told Rocket Lab employees at the beginning of his address. “What I know and what you know is that the greatness of American manufacturing is not simply wished into existence, nor does it appear out of thin air. What exists between these walls here on Earth and in the depths of outer space, they are forged – forged by the labor, the expertise and the sheer willpower of each one of you standing here.”

That is the purpose of the “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, he added, to be able to thank people for their work to make the U.S. military and the Department of Defense’s job possible.

Hegseth said he was also at the company on behalf of President Donald Trump, who is equally proud and “does everything in his power to support you.” The secretary also said that the president operates on three core principles: to put America first, that the real path to peace is through strength, and the reawakening of the industrial spirit and national confidence.

The secretary’s mission with the tour is to help ignite that revival of industrial spirit, he said. That includes being the “most lethal fighting force on the planet,” as well as rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence, he said. Hegseth also mentioned the president’s call for $1.5 trillion into the U.S. military budget in 2027.

Hegseth ended his address with a promise and challenge to each industry leader in the country:

“The days of rewarding the comfortable old guard for failure are finished,” he said. “We will provide larger, longer and more predictable contracts to companies like this one, companies that can actually deliver at pace and at scale. We will reward leaders who choose to invest in their workers, who expand their capacity and who share our sense of urgency.

“We will reward those who choose to deploy their resources toward bolstering production, not stock buyback programs or dividends,” he added. “The mission is quite simple. If you deliver for America, the government is going to have your back.”

As Hegseth made his way off the stage, Rocket Lab employees started chanting “USA” — and then got back to work a few minutes later.