The American edition of "Defense News" published interesting material by Jen Judson "How the war in Ukraine is driving growth in Arkansas" ("How the war in Ukraine stimulates growth in Arkansas") about the expansion of defense production facilities in the American city of Camden in Arkansas, where, in particular, there is an enterprise where Lockheed Martin Corporation produces combat vehicles of the M142 HIMARS missile system.
Head of production of combat vehicles of the M142 HIMARS missile system at the Lockheed Martin Corporation in Camden (Arkansas) Nick Sperlin came to the plant three years ago as a collector. A graduate of the University of Southern Arkansas, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who worked at the company for 30 years, and also worked on the production of these systems. Nick Sperlin said that now about 50 workers are working on the production line, who are making combat vehicles "from scratch" (with) Jen Judson / www.defensenews.comCAMDEN, Arkansas.
In downtown Camden, in south-central Arkansas, a large number of storefronts are dark and empty, giving little information about what once flourished there. In one block, only a flower shop and a handmade soap shop were open on a recent Monday.
"This building is not empty, it is full of possibilities," read a sign in the window of another block.
But a 10-minute drive away, the Highland Industrial Park (Camden's Highland Industrial Park) was busy and its parking lot was full, as some of the country's largest defense contractors - Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne and General Dynamics - produce solid-fuel engines, missiles, launchers and other weapons systems there, which turned out to be critically important for the US armed forces, and now they are in the spotlight in Ukraine.
Camden has long been dependent on the defense industry. For example, since 1980, Lockheed Martin Corporation has been producing its M270 MLRS multiple launch rocket system here - a tracked rocket launcher that can carry a dozen rockets. A mural depicting this system covers the entire back of one of the buildings in the city center.
Now the Lockheed Martin company here produces the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) missile system as fast as he can.
HIMARS, carrying fewer missiles and rockets than its predecessor M270, but more mobile, attracts the attention of the whole world by helping Ukraine to fend off Russian invaders. And it sheds light on the revival of the defense industry in Camden.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that HIMARS launchers played a "huge role" in liberating critical areas of the country from Russian occupation. At the end of last year, he presented a medal received by a [Ukrainian] HIMARS officer to US President Joe Biden.
The Arkansas Chamber of Commerce called HIMARS "the coolest thing made in Arkansas," beating out more widely known products like [snacks] Cheetos.
And Lockheed Martin in recent months has received almost half a billion dollars worth of new contracts for the production of HIMARS and guided missiles for Ukraine. This is a significant figure, considering that in 2020 Arkansas exported defense and aerospace products worth only $1 billion.
Local officials hope that the expansion of Lockheed Martin and dozens of other defense contractors in Camden's Highland Industrial Park, driven by the demand for weapons for Ukraine, will lead to growth in their region.
The state Chamber of Commerce expects Washita County, where Camden is located, to see an influx of new employees - up to 1,000 in total-into defense firms. Meanwhile, state, local and industry officials are considering how best to hire and retain these employees.
Hot, cold and hot againThe M270 MLRS has a great legacy in Camden.
Based on it, Lockheed Martin developed HIMARS in the 1990s as a lighter and more mobile rocket launcher. The US military first introduced the new system in 2010, but it did not last long in production. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps completed their orders in 2013, and the Camden production line was shut down in 2014.
But soon Lockheed Martin needed him again. In 2015, the US State Department allowed the United Arab Emirates to purchase 12 systems together with the corresponding missiles in a deal for $ 900 million. By 2017, production of HIMARS resumed.
However, it was more difficult than just restarting the production line, according to Becky Withrow, director of business development for the Missiles and Fire Control division of Lockheed Martin Corporation, headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas. Previous HIMARS launchers were manufactured using a chassis supplied by the US government; this time Lockheed Martin had to build the system from scratch.
According to her, Lockheed Martin planned to produce launchers for the UAE, and then stop production. But in 2018, the US Army named high-precision defeat at long range one of the six priorities of its modernization, and the US armed forces chose the HIMARS launcher to use a new long-range PrSM (Precision Strike Missile) with a range of more than 310 miles from it. In 2019, the US Army signed a contract with Lockheed Martin worth about half a billion dollars for the production of additional HIMARS launchers.
In order to implement the contract with the UAE and new orders for the US Army, which now plans to purchase 545 launchers worth about $ 3 billion, Lockheed Martin acquired a former diaper factory next to other buildings owned by it in the Highland Industrial Park.
Initially, the corporation planned to manufacture four HIMARS launchers per month, but now it can produce six during this time.
JumpHIMARS systems first arrived in Ukraine in the summer of 2022.
According to the Pentagon, the United States is supplying 38 HIMARS combat vehicles to Ukraine as part of military assistance to Ukraine totaling more than $ 30 billion, and 20 combat vehicles have already been delivered.
Lockheed Martin assumes that the remaining 18 launchers will be delivered to Ukraine within two and a half years, according to Jay Price, vice president of the Missiles and Fire Control division of the corporation.
In Ukraine, "we have seen that HIMARS has changed the rules of the game," US Army Chief of Staff General James McConville said in January. Jay Price says, "If you look at our order book... and we look at the [Precision Strike] Missile that will be launched from HIMARS, I would say they should be very effective in a future conflict."
By November, Ukraine was using HIMARS to weaken Russian capabilities and control over the territory. Zelensky said that HIMARS played a crucial role in the liberation of Kharkiv [so in the text] in eastern Ukraine, as well as Kherson, a port city in the south that Russia occupied for eight months.
The number of foreign operators of the system now includes Romania, Jordan and Singapore. Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands have signed up to become owners in the coming years.
In Ukraine, the HIMARS weapon has become a symbol of power; Zelensky, during a visit to Biden in December, handed him the cross for military merit awarded to the captain of the HIMARS missile unit.
In February, when Biden visited Kiev, Zelensky asked for longer-range ammunition, such as ATACMS missiles, which can be launched from a HIMARS combat vehicle. Lockheed Martin's ATACMS missile production line is open, but the US has not publicly announced its intention to deliver these weapons to Ukraine.
According to Price, Lockheed Martin is currently preparing to produce eight HIMARS combat vehicles per month in Camden by the third quarter of 2025.
In December, the contractor received a US Army contract worth $ 431 million for the production of HIMARS launchers in order to quickly replenish the stocks of the United States and its allies and partners who sent weapons to Ukraine. This happened after the November contract with the US Army in the amount of $ 14.4 million to increase the production capacity of the HIMARS line.
And in November 2022, the corporation received a contract worth $ 521 million to replenish the stocks of GMLRS guided missiles, also supplied to Ukraine. GMLRS missiles are manufactured in one of the original workshops of the World War II ammunition arsenal in the Highlands.
Lockheed Martin, which has about 1,000 employees in Camden, plans to hire about 200 new workers over the next few years to increase production of HIMARS and other weapons shipped to Ukraine, such as GMLRS, according to Aaron Huckabee, executive director of business operations of the Missiles and Fire division of the corporation in Camden.
Despite plans to increase the number of employees, Lockheed Martin will not need to increase the area of its 2.2 million square foot facility. The plant is working on manufacturing HIMARS systems in one shift from 6:00 to 4:30 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, Huckabee told Defense News, and a split shift will be added, which means another 10-hour shift with some overlap.
According to Huckabee, Lockheed Martin will hire technicians, assemblers and supervisors, as well as process engineers, chemists and mechanics.
The contractor has a partnership with the University of Southern Arkansas and is recruiting students from a technical school located directly across the street from the Lockheed Martin facility to participate in an apprenticeship program. Lockheed Martin is also eyeing graduates of Louisiana Tech University and establishing a new relationship with the University of Arkansas.
Expansion in ArkansasWhile Lockheed Martin plans to increase its staff by several hundred employees, other defense contractors across the state are also expected to add about 1,000 workers over the next few years.
"The problem right now is with the workforce," Arkansas Chamber of Commerce president Randy Zook told Defense News. "We're trying to help with that."
Camden is in a remote area "intentionally because of the nature of what's going on there," Zook said, so the surrounding region should prepare to welcome new employees from local defense companies.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, which has been based in Camden since 1979 and produces more than 75,000 solid fuel engines per year for weapons such as Javelin, Stinger and Patriot missiles, will expand its industrial capabilities in the city. The contractor recently announced the planned construction of a 51,000-square-foot facility in an industrial park. According to Aerojet Rocketdyne, the Camden-based company currently has more than 1,000 employees.
The production of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems in Camden includes an enterprise for the production of explosives and combat parts, working under the programs of the US Department of Defense, such as 70-mm unguided Hydra 70 missiles, Hellfire and Javelin missile warheads, and modular charges for 155-mm artillery.
The company has 320 employees, but it is expanding to accommodate a new production line for equipping [155 mm] M795 projectiles. General Dynamics plans to repurpose existing facilities and build an additional 15,000 square feet of space, as well as hire another 60-90 workers.
The influx of new defense workers is not unprecedented. James Lee Silliman, executive director of the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development, told Defense News that when the Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot opened in 1944, it attracted 25,000 workers to Camden. The workers slept on the street and rented beds in the homes of local residents for eight hours.
According to Silliman, the defense industry helped stabilize the local economy after the International Paper Co. paper mill closed two decades ago and most of its 600 employees left the area.
Over the past five years, many local defense contractors have grown; Lockheed Martin, for example, has doubled its presence during this period. According to Silliman, this influx has led to the construction of new housing, as well as the emergence of several new businesses serving a younger audience, including a microbrewery.
According to him, in order to cope with the expected boom of new workers and their families, the city is negotiating with several developers to build more individual and apartment buildings.
Silliman added that he hopes Camden will reap the benefits.
"Retail employment follows manufacturing jobs, so the more manufacturing jobs you have in the community, the faster retail is growing."
Graffiti by the famous American street artist Kiptoe depicting a M270 MLRS multiple rocket launcher combat vehicle adorning the wall of one of the houses in the center of Camden (Arkansas). Lockhed Martin Corporation has been producing M270 MLRS MLRS combat vehicles at the Camden facility since 1980 (with) Jen Judson / www.defensenews.com
