The HSAAP continues to play a vital role in ensuring our nation’s readiness and that our nation’s warfighters have the most capable resources to carry out missions successfully all over the world.
Through modernization, the site maintains a relentless focus on the future to improve the facility’s environmental footprint and expand production capacity. Over the last decade, the site has undergone transformative improvements, including a billion dollar investment in RDX capability expansion that is near completion. BAE Systems and the U.S. Army remain committed to a modern facility that is safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly.
A major step forward was the completion of a new natural gas-fired steam facility in 2022. The new facility replaced the legacy, coal-fired steam plant and significantly reduces the site’s carbon footprint. Though predictions fluctuate due to overall facility usage and other conditions, the new gas-fired steam facility could reduce the site’s CO2 emissions by as much as approximately 700,000 metrics tons on an annual basis. Such achievements will make this one of the major enhancements that will be recognized years in the future for its impact to the site, environment and surrounding communities.
Ongoing projects of note include the construction of a Weak Acetic Acid Recovery Process (WAARP), which would allow the Holton facility to recover spent acetic acid and recycle it back into the production processes, resulting in less waste and more efficient manufacturing capability. The expected completion date is summer of 2023. Work is also underway on the new Flashing Furnace, a state of the art facility that will thermally treat waste materials. The Flashing Furnace is slated for completion in mid-2024. The new Nitration facility construction project commenced in January of 2022. The current facility is one of the site’s legacy buildings, and the new construction will allow for increased production capacity and more efficient throughput of material as it moves through the site’s production processes. The expected completion date is mid-2025.
Finally, at the end of 2022, BAE Systems was awarded a $63 million firm-fixed-price contract to construct, commission and transition a new filtration and wash facility to production. Combined, these modernization efforts will ensure that the Holston Army Ammunition Plant continues to serve its mission to our U.S. military and country in safe, effective and environmentally-conscious ways.
The United States has the best fighting force in the entire world, and that comes with great responsibility. There is no team or group of people more committed to ensuring that our warfighters have a reliable supply of the most effective energetics in the world than the people who work at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant and call Kingsport and its surrounding communities home.