INDIAN HEAD, MARYLAND — The U.S. Navy broke ground on the Maryland Energetics Innovation Hub (MEIH) on Thursday near the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indian Head, Maryland, approximately an hour from the Pentagon. The Navy awarded the American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation (ACMI) $50 million to support the development of the hub, and ACMI aims to raise an additional $150 million for the project.
The Maryland Energetics Innovation Hub will focus on eight technical areas: developing new energetics materials, high-performance computing, non-destructive test and evaluation, integration with drones or unmanned systems, automating energetic processing and assembly, creating new manufacturing processes for propulsion systems and warheads, analyzing energetics obsolescence, and producing high-precision, high-throughput non-energetic components. The first two buildings are planned to be completed within nine months.
“This initiative ensures that NSWC Indian Head Division remains at the forefront of energetics innovation, scale-up, and production,” said Captain Stephen Duba, commanding officer of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division. He added, “By bringing together government and industry partners in a collaborative environment, we can accelerate the development and fielding of critical capabilities that strengthen the Navy’s arsenal and the larger munitions industrial base.”
John Burer, founder of ACMI, described the hub’s objective as focusing on process and technology development around energetics, with outcomes intended to scale across the United States. “The objective of the Maryland Energetics Innovation Hub is around process development and technology development around energetics, which would be developed there, but then scale and be relevant in many other places across the United States—qualifying new second sources of supply, which is a special thing that they have the ability to do at the nation's only government-owned, government-operated arsenal for the Navy, at Indian Head.” He also noted the hub’s smaller footprint is suited for pilot-scale work, unlike large-scale production sites. “To build a solid rocket motor campus, for example, which is one of the specialties behind the gate at Indian Head, you need many, many hundreds of acres…That's what scaled production needs. But refining the processes at a pilot scale. It's smart to do that in a smaller footprint campus, in a collaborative way, which is what they're aiming to do here.”
The Energetics Technology Center, a not-for-profit organization led by CEO William Durant, will occupy space at the hub to help connect companies seeking to work with the Navy. “We want to see and help enable the companies that are coming in—that are best suited to meet any of those eight technical capability areas—[be] successful.” Durant said the hub aims to identify key performers within 16 to 18 months and respond flexibly to warfighter needs. “Whatever is most important in supporting warfighter success. If that means a company comes in for six months, great! If that means that a company now needs to take up residency for five years, great! And now, does that mean we need to build another facility?”
Over the next year, the hub plans to establish a set of companies and a roadmap to execute solutions in the eight research and development areas. It aims to host approximately ten companies, either as long-term residents or on a rotating basis.