Hanwha Plans $2.2 Billion Munitions Campus at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Up From $1.3 Billion in January

PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Hanwha Defense USA plans to build a $2.2 billion munitions manufacturing campus at the U.S. Army's Pine Bluff Arsenal in southeast Arkansas.

The company, a subsidiary of South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace, announced the Hanwha Advanced Manufacturing Campus on Sept. 21. It expects to create up to 400 jobs over seven years.

The campus will produce 155mm artillery propellant charges and base bleed units. A Hanwha spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive that construction is expected to be complete by 2030, with operations starting the following year. The company has not named a contractor or announced when construction will start.

What it will make

Propellant charges are the bags or modules of propellant that fire an artillery shell out of the gun. Base bleed units attach to the back of a shell and reduce drag to extend its range. Hanwha says the campus will handle several key stages of munitions production, and Korean outlet The Korea Herald reported the plant is planned to be vertically integrated, from raw materials to finished products.

Hanwha CEO and President Michael Coulter said the company plans to produce energetic materials in the U.S. to support munitions speed and range.

A bigger project than first planned

The project has grown since Hanwha first won the site. In January, when the Army granted Hanwha a lease for the campus, the company planned to invest about $1.3 billion and create 200 jobs, according to Manufacturing Dive. Hanwha now puts the investment at $2.2 billion with close to 400 jobs, which a spokesperson attributed to the site selection and customer needs.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the jobs will pay an average of more than $50 an hour.

The Army lease

The campus will sit on Army land under an enhanced use lease, a program that lets the Army lease underused property to private companies whose work benefits its installations. The Army can earn income from those leases and use it for new construction.

Jordan Gillis, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said the eventual lease will generate revenue that the Army can reinvest in infrastructure for soldiers and their families. Terms of the lease, including rent and length, were not disclosed.

Pine Bluff Arsenal covers about 13,500 acres, with 667 buildings and 1.1 million square feet of storage. It already produces smoke grenades for the military. Hanwha did not say how much of the arsenal the new campus will use.

How Arkansas landed it

Clint O'Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said the state worked with Hanwha for about 18 months, including site visits, meetings in Korea and conversations at the Paris and Farnborough air shows.

Sanders praised the project and noted that aerospace and defense is the state's top export industry. Sen. Tom Cotton said it will bring billions of dollars in investment and hundreds of jobs to Arkansas. The state has not disclosed what incentives, if any, are part of the deal.

Hanwha opened a new U.S. administrative headquarters at the arsenal the same week, which the company called the first step toward the campus.

Hanwha's growing U.S. footprint

Pine Bluff is part of a broader push by Hanwha into the U.S. defense market. In August, the Army awarded the company an agreement for self-propelled howitzer prototypes, worth an initial $100.3 million and up to $262.9 million, according to Manufacturing Dive. Hanwha is also building a prototype assembly and testing facility in Opelika, Alabama, for that work, The Korea Herald reported.

The Pine Bluff campus also fits the Pentagon's effort to rebuild the U.S. munitions industrial base.

Timeline

What's still unknown

For contractors watching the project, the key details are still missing. Hanwha has not named a general contractor or design team, set a construction start date, or released the size of the campus. Hanwha has said only that construction should be complete by 2030.