Hanwha Aerospace to spend $2.2 billion on new ammunition hub in Arkansas

Hanwha Defense USA, the U.S. arm of Hanwha Aerospace, held an opening ceremony at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas to mark the start of its new ammunition production hub. Attendees included Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Army installations assistant secretary Jordan Gillis, and Arkansas Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald, among other officials. The firm was chosen earlier this year to lease the site under a U.S. Army solicitation and will invest $2.2 billion over seven years to build a facility that manufactures 155-mm artillery shell components and propellant charges, using an end-to-end production system.

The project, called the Hanwha Advanced Manufacturing Campus, is projected to create about 400 jobs. In parallel, Hanwha Aerospace signed a contract to deliver a K9MH wheeled howitzer prototype for the Mobile Tactical Cannon program and is setting up a testing and integration center in Opelika, Alabama. Together, the Arkansas and Alabama sites will anchor the company's expanding ground-defense business in the United States.