Hanwha Plans $2.2 Billion Pine Bluff Arsenal Munitions Plant, 400 New Jobs

The South Korean defense company opened its Pine Bluff headquarters as it moves forward with a major manufacturing campus that will produce 155mm artillery components and strengthen the U.S. munitions supply chain

By Wesley Brown, Arkansas Delta Informer Editor

Sept. 21, 2026 – More than nine months after the U.S. Army awarded a lease to Hanwha Defense USA (HDUSA) to build and operate a new munitions facility at Pine Bluff Arsenal, the South Korean multinational firm is moving forward with plans to invest $2.2 billion in the aging south Arkansas military complex.

On Monday, Hanwha executives joined Gov. Sarah Sanders, other state and economic development officials, and local leaders to celebrate the opening of its new administrative headquarters at the U.S. Army arsenal, about eight miles northwest of Pine Bluff and 30 miles southeast of Little Rock.

The new Hanwha Advanced Manufacturing campus at the Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) is expected to create nearly 400 jobs over seven years, officials said. The admin headquarters is the first step in a multi-billion-dollar HDUSA project, which was originally awarded a lease solicitation for a new campus at the arsenal in January. 

“Hanwha remains committed to supporting the American defense industrial base by bringing our manufacturing strength to the U.S. and creating up to 400 jobs in Arkansas,” said Hanwha Defense USA CEO Michael Coulter. “By opening our new office in Pine Bluff that will oversee local operations, Hanwha plans to invest around $2.2 billion in our new Advanced Manufacturing Campus that will transform domestic munitions industrial base and further strengthen America’s arsenal of freedom.”

After welcoming the Arlington, Va.-based defense contractor to the Pine Bluff area, Gov. Sanders called the U.S. ally’s investment a “huge win for communities throughout the Arkansas Delta, bolstering local economies and creating hundreds of jobs.”

“It’s because of billion-dollar investments like this one that aerospace and defense is Arkansas’ number one export industry,” Sanders said during today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In January, U.S. Army officials said that through its Enhanced Use Leasing (EUL) program, the Army is strategically leasing underutilized property to Hanwha, a subsidiary of Hanwha Aerospace, a multinational industrial conglomerate with annual revenue of nearly $20 billion. Army leaders also described the effort as a foundational investment that will shape the future of U.S. munitions production.

“The eventual lease will create revenue for the Army, bring in new jobs for the local community, and enhance our organic industrial base,” said Jordan Gillis, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. “By leasing underutilized land, the Army can reinvest the consideration into critical infrastructure to support quality of life of Soldiers, civilians, and their family members  — delivering lasting value for both the Army and the region.”

Gillis said the international partnership will bring the manufacturing of essential ingredients for explosives and propellants to the U.S., a critical step in strengthening the nation’s defense organic industrial base. This move directly enhances the performance, safety, and lifespan of crucial munitions, including 155mm artillery shells.

Hanwha Defense USA’s new facility will focus on producing 155mm propellant charges and base-bleed units, company officials said. The facility will also establish advanced domestic manufacturing capabilities spanning key stages of munitions production, supporting increased U.S. production capacity and modernizing the nation’s munitions industrial base

The international partnership with the South Korean conglomerate comes at a critical time as the Pentagon seeks to rapidly rebuild the nation’s munitions stockpiles amid the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

In recent months, the Department of War has announced several key multi-billion-dollar framework agreements to dramatically increase production of key missile defense systems for the Army, other U.S. military branches, and allies. According to military experts, the backlog and inventories of PAC-3, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, Precision Strike Missiles, and critical munitions for the U.S. military and key allies are nearly exhausted.

In a recent report by the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), military experts said the U.S. has conducted its “most munitions-intensive military campaign in decades” since Operation Fury began in February.

“The conflict has consumed thousands of advanced offensive and defensive missiles, placing unprecedented strain on inventories of critical systems such as Patriot interceptors, THAAD interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and other high-end precision munitions,” Tom Karako, director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project, said during an Aug. 5 CSIS video cast here.

“As policymakers assess the war’s long-term consequences, questions about the depth of U.S. stockpiles, production capacity, and military readiness have become central to national security planning,” Karako stressed.

Pentagon deals brings billions of dollars in investment, hundreds of jobs, and key U.S. allies to South Arkansas

 Besides ongoing efforts to rejuvenate the aging Pine Bluff facility, which once served as one of several U.S. Army locations for storing chemical waste and weapons, several of the nation’s largest defense contractors at the Highland Industrial Park in nearby Calhoun County are ramping up production and investing billions to restock the nation’s munitions and missile stockpiles.

For example, L3Harris Technologies announced a $4.7 billion deal earlier this month with the Department of War (DoW) to dramatically increase production of the lethal Patriot missile defense systems, also known as PAC-3.

L3Harris’s announcement came nearly five months after the U.S. Army awarded a $4.7 billion undefinitized contract to Lockheed Martin to support accelerated production of PAC-3 MSE interceptors. As one of Lockheed Martin’s key subcontractors, L3 Harris’s 1,200-employee workforce in southern Arkansas largely supports the defense giant’s munitions program.

Both framework agreements with Lockheed and L3Harris are a direct result of the Department of Defense’s push to modernize acquisition processes, providing industry partners with long-term demand certainty. This new model incentivizes industrial investment, increases production rates, and improves operational efficiency. Lockheed Martin’s Camden operation, which delivered 620 PAC-3 MSEs in 2025—a 20% increase over the previous year—will be at the forefront of this expansion, officials said.

“This first-of-its-kind approach builds on years of advocacy and collaboration to bring commercial practices to major acquisition programs,” said Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO Jim Taiclet. “We will create unprecedented capacity for PAC-3 MSE production, delivering at the speed our nation and allies demand while providing value for taxpayers and our shareholders.”

The surge in PAC-3 MSE production is expected to add thousands of new jobs across the U.S. supply chain, with Camden’s Highland Industrial Park poised to benefit significantly. The agreement strengthens the resilience of the U.S. defense industrial base, enabling long-term supplier investment and predictable demand signals that support sustained production, Pentagon officials have said.

All these multi-billion-dollar awards followed a Feb. 27 visit by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to Highland Park in Calhoun County, where he visited the manufacturing sites of several U.S. defense contractors.  Besides Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and RTX are among the so-called “big five” defense contractors at Highland that receive the largest share of the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion annual budget.

Over a year ago, the U.S. Army and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems announced the opening of a new load, assemble, and pack (LAP) facility. Like Hanwha’s manufacturing site in Pine Bluff, the General Dynamics facility will also produce 155 mm high-explosive artillery projectiles for the U.S. Army at the larger military-industrial site in East Camden.

That 155 mm artillery facility represents a $110 million investment for General Dynamics and is expected to create 185 new jobs at the Calhoun County manufacturing site. Once fully operational, the General Dynamics manufacturing facility’s two LAP lines will produce 155 mm explosives at a rate of 50,000 per month, U.S. Army officials said.

In East Camden, General Dynamics operations house over 880,000 square feet of manufacturing and storage space and over 100 workers support various U.S. military programs, including the Hydra-70 2.75-inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, the Modular Artillery Charge System, and various mortar munitions.

Besides South Korea, other U.S. allies are also investing billions of dollars to produce missiles and interceptor systems in south Arkansas. In December 2025, U.S.-based defense giant RTX and Hafia, Israel-based Rafael Protection Systems (R2S) secured a major $1.25 billion contract to produce interceptor missiles in south Arkansas for the Iron Dome Weapon System

R2S, a manufacturing company formed by defense giant RTX (formerly Raytheon) and Rafael, will use the new East Camden facility to build the Iron Dome’s Tamir interceptor and its U.S. variant, the SkyHunter Interceptor. Rafael is the original developer of the Iron Dome, a system that has fundamentally transformed air defense worldwide and protected Israel from aerial and other short-range missile attacks.

The new Camden facility represents a total investment of approximately $63 million and is expected to create up to 60 new jobs in the region.

In addition, during the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in July in Ankara, Turkey, Lockheed and the German defense conglomerate Rheinmetall announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to co-produce ATACMS missiles for the first time on European soil.

Lockheed and Rheinmetall, both of which have substantial operations at Highland, stated that the trans-Atlantic deal addresses the immediate demand for locally produced munitions in Europe. The deal also comes as the U.S. Army phases out ATACMS in favor of newer, state-of-the-art Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs), both produced by Lockheed in Camden.

Besides the planned Lockheed-Rheinmetall facility in Germany, the two U.S. allies, along with the other NATO allies, announced plans at the NATO summit attended by President Trump to explore establishing a dedicated PAC-3 missile maintenance facility in Europe, a move that could eventually enable overseas production, military experts say.