MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – The chairman and chief executive of L3Harris Technologies, the defense giant headquartered in Melbourne and one of Brevard County’s largest employers, is out after a board investigation into his personal conduct.
L3Harris announced Monday, Aug. 17, that Christopher Kubasik has stepped down as chairman, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. He also resigned from all subsidiary boards under the terms of a separation agreement.
The company has not said what he did.
In its announcement and in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, L3Harris said its board became aware of certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the company’s values as set out in its Code of Conduct. The board investigated with the assistance of independent counsel and then determined that a separation agreement was in the best interests of the company.
L3Harris was careful to draw a line around the damage. The company said the conduct was unrelated to its financial reporting, internal controls, customer relationships or operational performance, and it reaffirmed its 2026 guidance on revenue, organic growth, segment operating margin, GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow.
The company has not disclosed when it first received the report that triggered the investigation.
This has happened to Kubasik before
The circumstances will sound familiar to anyone who followed the defense industry in 2012.
On Nov. 9, 2012, Lockheed Martin asked for and received Kubasik’s resignation as president, chief operating officer and CEO-elect after an internal ethics investigation confirmed he had a close personal relationship with a subordinate employee. Lockheed used nearly identical language at the time, saying the conduct did not affect the company’s operational or financial performance. Marillyn Hewson stepped into the CEO role instead.
Kubasik spent three years outside the ranks of the major defense primes before joining L3 Technologies in 2015 as president and chief operating officer. When L3 merged with Melbourne-based Harris Corporation in 2019 to create L3Harris, he was positioned to take the top job, and he did.
Fourteen years after the Lockheed episode, an ethics investigation has ended his tenure at the top of a major American defense contractor for the second time.
What he keeps and what he loses
Under the separation agreement, Kubasik may retain and exercise previously vested stock options. He will not receive severance payments, severance benefits or accelerated vesting of unvested equity awards.
For a chief executive of a company with more than $21 billion in annual revenue, walking away without severance and without accelerated equity is not a gentle exit. It is the structure a board uses when it wants distance.
Sam Mehta takes over
The board appointed Sam Mehta as president and chief executive officer and a member of the board, effective immediately. Lewis Hay III, the company’s lead independent director since the Harris era, was named independent chairman.
Mehta, 53, joined L3Harris in January 2023 and most recently served as president of the Space & Mission Systems and Communications & Spectrum Dominance segments, which together account for roughly 80 percent of company revenue. He spent more than 17 years at Sikorsky Aircraft before that and brings more than 25 years in aerospace and defense.
His promotion set off a chain of moves. Lauren Barnes, previously president of Spectrum Superiority, becomes president of Space & Mission Systems. Christopher Aebli, previously president of Mission Critical Communications, will lead Communications & Spectrum Dominance.
Mehta’s compensation package includes a $1.25 million annual base salary, a target annual cash bonus of 200 percent of base salary and a long-term incentive target of $13.25 million, each prorated for fiscal 2026.
SpaceNews reported that Hay framed the change as the execution of an existing succession plan, saying the board and Kubasik agreed that implementing it now was the right thing to do.
Shares of L3Harris, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under LHX, fell roughly 2.7 percent in premarket trading Monday.
Why it matters on the Space Coast
L3Harris is not just another name on a Fortune list here. The company is headquartered in Melbourne with campuses in Palm Bay and Malabar and employs thousands of Brevard County residents out of a global workforce that has run in the 47,000 to 50,000 range in recent years.
When the company announced layoffs in 2024, The Space Coast Rocket reported it employed roughly 7,000 people in Brevard and was the largest employer in the City of Palm Bay. The company has also drawn federal scrutiny in recent years, including a $62 million settlement announced by the Department of Justice in May 2025 over allegedly defective cost and pricing data tied to its Communication Systems West division.
A leadership change of this kind at the top of that building affects mortgage payments in Palm Bay, West Melbourne and Viera, not just a stock ticker.
The Space Coast Rocket has requested additional detail from L3Harris on the nature of the conduct and the timeline of the investigation. This story will be updated.
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