$75 million Munitions Campus in Bloomfield lands first tenants
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A $75 million federal pilot program has landed its first group of 16 companies that have committed to setting up operations in Greene County.
The Munitions Campus Program will be established on a portion of the planned National Security Industrial Hub, a more than 1,100-acre development in Bloomfield near Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.
The American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation, based in Texas, is developing the Munitions Campus, which the U.S. Department of Defense says is designed to support multiple emerging domestic defense companies through a shared facility that will reduce cost and lower barriers to entry.
Simon Shewmaker, head of development for ACMI Properties, told Inside INdiana Business that the Munitions Campus will be a sprawling development.
“Our plan is that there be upwards of a million and a half to 2 million square feet total,” Shewmaker said. “That probably lends itself to several dozen buildings, and we’re working on the master plan of what that would look like with with some of the larger companies having more of the buildings and some of the smaller, growing companies potentially in shared facilities.”
ACMI says the 16 companies planning to come to the Munitions Campus represent a variety of specialties with defense applications, including aerospace engineering, materials science, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and propellants.
While the investments being made by each individual company are not yet known, ACMI said the pilot program could stimulate $600 million in private investment.
ACMI was awarded $75 million by the DoD in September 2023 for the Munitions Campus, though a location had not been identified at that time.
Shewmaker said there has been a growing demand for space near the Crane naval base, which made Bloomfield a prime location.
“We’ve seen significant demand from companies wanting to be close to Crane and to work with Crane, and also the benefits that Indiana has to offer from its workforce, from its ease of transportation along I-69,” he said. “That’s really what took our brought our focus to that community in that area.”
The DoD’s goal with the Munitions Campus is to strengthen the munitions supply chain by scaling up domestic munitions production capabilities and capacity, ACMI said. By utilizing shared facilities, officials aim to lower barriers to entry for emerging defense firms and accelerate new technologies from the R&D phase to production.
The first companies coming to the campus are Alaris, Athena, Canopy Aerospace, Deterrence, Elementum 3D, Exos Aerospace, Freemelt, Hybron, Kratos, Prometheus, Raven, RMSL, Spinner, Supernova, Sustainment, and Voyager Technologies.
“It’s exciting to see so many companies working on different parts of the defense industrial base investing in one location,” ACMI CEO John Burer said in written remarks. “By bringing this range of capabilities and specialties together we are enabling a more resilient, efficient, and innovative industrial base that benefits both the defense and commercial sectors. The success of this approach, leveraging private capital to develop facilities critical to the defense industrial base, signals a new era for rebuilding America’s manufacturing capabilities.”
Shewmaker said ACMI aims to break ground on the Munitions Campus later this year, with the first phase of buildings being completed by late 2026 or early 2027.
The National Security Industrial Hub is a 1,141-acre development just off I-69 in Bloomfield designed to attract defense, aerospace, and light manufacturing companies.
Last month, Prometheus Energetics announced plans to build a $175 million facility at the industrial hub that will focus on the production of solid rocket motors, munitions and other energetics, beginning in 2027.
The company, a joint venture between California-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. and Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is expected to create 300 jobs.
“What we’re looking to do with the National Security Industrial Hub is to help the reshoring and onshoring of expanding manufacturers [and] have a place to grow and a community where that ecosystem can create more synergies than just their day-to-day business activities,” Shewmaker said.
We’ll have more on the Munitions Campus project on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.