Briana Pace | Southern Indiana Business Report
American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation (ACMI) announced significant expansion plans to its munitions campus, the National Security Industrial Hub (NSIH), near Crane Army Ammunition Activity and Naval Surface Warfare Center. The project makes NSIH the largest aerospace and defense project in the state and one of the largest in the country, increasing the property from 1,100 acres to over 1,500.
SPINNER North America, known for their computer numerical control machine tools, and iRocket, manufacturer of solid rocket motors and 100% reusable rockets; both have plans to operate out of NSIH.
“One of the challenges every developer has in a project like this, is making sure we’re sizing it for the demand,” CEO of ACMI Properties David Dowell said. “We’ve been working on this project for well over two years now, and as demand has increased, we wanted to make sure that we have enough land under control to accommodate that demand.”
With the expansion, SPINNER North America will create an advanced manufacturing facility to aid “mass production of a broad spectrum of hardware on site by providing advanced machining technology, application engineering, process development, automation expertise, training and production support to tenants and mission partners across the campus.”
iRocket will use NSIH as a facility for fast development of its technology.
In addition to SPINNER North America and iRocket joining the campus, Prometheus Energetics is expanding its site from 600 acres to nearly 700 acres. There, the company is building its headquarters and advanced solid rocket motors production facilities.
The expansion of the campus and addition of companies operating within the hub will create high-paying, technical and industrial manufacturing jobs in the area, according to Dowell.
“There’s a lot of knock-on benefits for the local community,” Dowell said. “I mean, we’re talking about infrastructure improvements, talking about, with the addition of all those jobs; all those people need to eat and live and play in the area. That drives a whole sort of secondary derivative of economic benefits.”
Dowell believes this project will further solidify Indiana’s reputation for being a center of excellence for munitions.
“We’re very excited to be in Indiana. We’re very excited with the momentum of this program, the support we’ve gotten from the county and the state and the Department of War,” Dowell said. “We’re just excited this has kicked off.”