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Highland Industrial Park

Highland Industrial Park, a storage and testing facility for Defense Department contractors in East Camden, is in Calhoun and Ouachita counties. The 17,000-acre park contains 600 munitions storage bunkers. Used for testing and storing Navy ammunitions during World War II, much of the former depot now functions as the Highland Industrial Park, where several Defense Department contractors store munitions and conduct tests. This site has been referred to by a number of names including Shumaker Ordnance Plant, Camden Naval Ordnance Plant, Naval Operations Camden-Shumaker, and U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot - Shumaker, Camden, Arkansas.

Camden has a skilled, precision manufacturing workforce trained, certified and seasoned by a long-time cluster of defense companies specializing in munitions, rockets, guided missiles, launchers, and other battle vehicles. Highland Industrial Park, located approximately one mile from the Camden Regional Airport, has over 1,000 buildings, containing over 5,500,000 square feet of space for manufacturing, testing and warehousing. The park was formerly a U.S. Naval base and now is privately owned and encompasses almost 16,000 acres of land.

In downtown Camden, in south-central Arkansas, a large number of storefronts sit dark and empty, offering little insight into what once thrived there. On one block, only a florist and an artisanal soap shop were open. ‘This building is not empty, it’s full of opportunity,’ a sign on another block’s storefront read. But 10 minutes away, the Highland Industrial Park was bustling and its parking lot full as some of the nation’s largest defense contractors — Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne and General Dynamics — manufactured solid-rocket motors, missiles, launchers and other weapons systems that proved critical to the U.S. military and are now front and center in Ukraine.

The former Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD), consisting of 68,417.82 acres, was located four miles northeast of Camden, Arkansas on the east side of U.S. Highway 79 and north of State Highway Number 4. The NAD covered land in two counties, Calhoun and Ouachita. The location is further described as being located at Latitude 33 degrees, 38 minutes North, and 92 degrees, 42 minutes West; 95 miles south of Little Rock, Arkansas and 87 miles east of Texarkana, Arkansas.

The site was operated by the U.S. Navy from 1944 until 1957 for the manufacture, testing, storage, distribution, disassembly, reworking, and destruction of ammunition, bombs, and explosives, principally rockets. It was operated by the National Fireworks Ordnance Corporation as a government owned - contractor operated (GOCO) facility under the supervision of U.S. Navy personnel. Improvements to the site included an elaborate railroad track and spurline system, hundreds of reinforced concrete storage magazines, loading dock facilities, headquarters and administration buildings, and an eight mile long rocket test range in addition to production and handling facilities for all types of high explosive admixtures, to include TNT, Composition "B", Ammonium Nitrate, RDX Base and aluminum powder.

International Paper in 1961 bought 40,000 acres of forest at the former naval depot. The Brown family of Texas, later famous for its partnership in the global Brown and Root construction company, bought the remaining 25,000 acres. The purchase included the headquarters buildings, the depot's extensive network of railways, hundreds of warehouses, production facilities and bunkers where the Navy stored explosives and ammunition. Highland Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Brown Engineering, then began operating the depot as an industrial park and defense contractors began taking over the old facilities. The Navy's housing area became the town of East Camden. The depot commander's house became a guest house for visiting consultants, executives and engineers.

The Reagan-era defense buildup swelled production and employment at the park. By 1984, the LTV Aerospace and Defense Company produced one MLRS rocket every three minutes and several launch vehicles every week in its East Camden plant. General Dynamics produced Sparrow missiles, and Hitech Inc., made demolition charges for the Army and underwater demolition kits for the Navy. The end of the Cold War brought defense spending cutbacks. Tracor and General Dynamics layed off workers, causing a rise in local unemployment rates. Tracor, which had 440 employees at the end of 1989, had only 90 by April 1990. General Dynamics, which once employed 1,500 workers, was by now down to 550.

Notable features located within the boundaries of the former installation are three cemeteries and the community of East Camden (formerly Billkitts Rental Housing). International Paper conducts forestry operations on approximately 40,000 acres. The majority of the remaining acreage is currently an industrial complex known as Highland Industrial Park. Occupants of the industrial park with ordnance related functions include: Lockheed-Martin, Loral Vaught Systems, Atlantic Research Corporation, BEI Defense Systems Company, Tracor Aerospace, Hughes Missile Systems, National Testing Service, Olin Industries, Camden Ordnance, Hitech Incorporated, and Austin Power.

Since beginning production in the early 1980s Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Camden Operations has produced more than 650,000 rockets and over 1,100 MLRS launchers. The current Camden facility performs final assembly, test and storage of missiles including the MLRS Extended-Range (ER) Rocket, the Reduced-Range Practice Rocket (RRPR) and the Guided MLRS Rocket. The plant produces MLRS launchers for the U.S. Army, Army National Guard and several allied armies, and produces HIMARS launchers for the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, which designates HIMARS as the Marine Expeditionary Rocket System (MERS). The new facility will include world-class automated production and assembly equipment and be located near the existing Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) production plant.0

The April 28, 2001, explosion that occurred at the Highland Industrial Park complex located in East Camden, Arkansas consisted of two explosions that caused the destruction of the bunkers at the Highland Industrial Park. The initial explosion was relatively small in size and occurred at approximately 7:39 pm on the night of April 28, 2001, followed by a larger explosion occurring approximately one minute later creating a crater the size of football field. The igloo was being utilized for munitions storage by New River Energetics of Radford, Va., and managed by its parent company, Alliant Tech Systems. Approximately 142,000 pounds of assorted high explosives and smokeless propellants were stored in the bunker. The explosion totally destroyed the bunker and damaged surrounding bunkers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) was ultimately unable to determine the initial cause of the explosion. However, investigators found no evidence of illegal entry into or tampering with the bunker.

Local officials are hopeful expansion at Lockheed 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’s Chamber of Commerce anticipates Ouachita County, home to Camden, will see an influx of new employees — up to 1,000 total — at defense firms. In the meantime, state, local and industry officials are weighing how to best recruit and retain these employees.

Lockheed, which has about 1,000 employees in Camden, plans to hire about 200 new workers over the next several years to increase HIMARS production and that of other weapons sent to Ukraine like the GMLRS, according to Aaron Huckaby, the director of Lockheed’s Missiles and Fire Control business operations in Camden. Despite plans to bolster its workforce, Lockheed won’t need to add space to its 2.2 million-square-foot facility. The plant operates with one HIMARS shift from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, Huckaby told Defense News, and will add a split shift, meaning another 10-hour shift with some overlap. Lockheed will hire technicians, assemblers and inspectors, as well as manufacturing, chemical and mechanical engineers, Huckaby said.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, which has been in Camden since 1979 and builds more than 75,000 solid-rocket motors a year for weapons like the Javelin, Stinger and Patriot missile, will grow its energetics capabilities in the town. The contractor recently announced the planned construction of a 51,000-square-foot facility in the industrial park. Its Camden workforce now totals more than 1,000 employees, according to Aerojet. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems’ Camden operations include an explosive load, assemble and pack facility working on Defense Department programs like the Hydra 70 2.75-inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin warheads, and the modular artillery system supporting 155mm artillery. The company has 320 employees at the location, but is expanding to accommodate a new product line for explosive load, assemble and pack for M795 projectiles. GD plans to repurpose existing facilities and build an additional 15,000 square feet of space as well as hire 60-90 more workers. General Dynamics Camden Operations, which is not a Federal Facility, is an industry leader in the high rate production, system integration and testing of energetic products. As part of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems’, Camden Operations is the business’s explosive load, assemble and pack facility, supporting a variety of U.S. military programs, including the Hydra-70 2.75inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, the Modular Artillery Charge System and various mortar munitions. Located near Camden, Ark., Camden Operations houses over 880,000 square feet of manufacturing and storage space. Camden Operations adheres to stringent quality standards through the use of several advanced quality control analytical laboratories, which perform both mechanical and chemical inspection. As a premier manufacturing facility, Camden is capable of producing IM (Insensitive Munitions) compliant products. IM compliant products are immune to external threats in their environments and respond.

Camden Operations is an industry leader in high rate production - load, assemble and pack (LAP). Capabilities include melt cast, mix cast, press loading and extrusion processes for explosives production and integration. Insensitive Munitions requirements include but are not limited to passing Fragment Impact, Bullet Impact, Slow Cookoff, Fast Cookoff, Shaped Charge Jet and sympathetic detonation tests.

Mix cast entails blending an explosive ingredient with a cohesive, plastic binder, and then casting and curing into a munition. A 100 gallon and a 500 gallon mixer provides the capacity to cast large quantities and larger sizes of explosive products. Melt pour requires melting an explosive in a steam-heated kettle and pouring the mixture into a warhead case or other munition. Pressing consists of an explosive powder poured into a die. The powder is then pressed to the near-net-shape of the product, also known as the billet. The billet is then machined to the desired shape and dimension. Our presses range from 75 ton to 1,000 tons and were designed by Camden’s skilled team.

Products include the Hydra-70 2.75-inch rocket, Hellfire and Javelin warheads, the Joint Airto-Surface Standoff Missile and the Modular Artillery Charge System. Camden Operations also produces high-explosive unitary, training warheads and various mortar rounds. Camden Operations achieves an industry-leading reputation as a world-class facility for the high rate production, system integration and testing of energetic products through proven processes and a skilled team dedicated to continuous improvement in advanced product design and production capabilities.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (OTS), a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) announced September 29, 2023 it was awarded a $218 million initial task order for 155mm M1128 Load, Assemble, and Pack (LAP). The task order, awarded under a $974 million multiyear firm-fixed-price U.S. Army contract, awarded to OTS and another company, includes funding for M1128 facilitization and production at OTS’s operations in Camden, Arkansas. M1128 new generation projectiles are part of the U.S. Army’s effort to modernize and expand 155mm artillery production.

OTS was awarded a similar contract in February 2023 for M795 LAP facilitization of 20,000 rounds per month. Combined together, the two awards support 50,000 rounds per month of new LAP capacity by 2025. GD-OTS will also expand industrial capacity to produce the vital base bleed assemblies for the projectile. This contract will fund the installation of a LAP facility using modernized processes and the latest generation air-cooling techniques. The air-cooling technology has been demonstrated to improve the quality and efficiency of the 155mm artillery LAP process, while leveraging more environmentally responsible methods to reduce hazardous waste.

“We are proud to be expanding our role as a key industrial partner for the U.S. Army, as it plans and manages efforts to increase and accelerate U.S. artillery production,” said Kevin Fahey, senior vice president and general manager at OTS. “We are grateful for this opportunity to work in close collaboration with the U.S. Army and implement this innovative and environmentally friendly process to execute the critical artillery mission.”

General Dynamics was able to open the UAPL (Universal Artillery Projectile Lines) plant in less than 10 months from the start of construction. It is planned that the plant will produce about 30 thousand 155-mm artillery shells every month. Production will be based on lines from the Turkish defense company Repkon , which assembled robots and CNC lathes. The UAPL plant will consist of three production lines located in different buildings.

Unlike the traditional method of production by forging projectiles, which can take several days, the plant uses a flow forming method : a machine spins a 130-pound steel cup at high speed, compressing it into a long cylinder. Robotic arms then move the metal parts of the projectiles from one machine to another using small automated carts. Laser scanners replace human inspection when inspecting projectiles inside and out, ensuring products quickly meet required specifications. Once fabrication is completed, the empty UAPL casings will be shipped to the Burlington, Iowa, plant for filling with explosives. In 2025, however, a significant portion of the projectiles will be shipped to General Dynamics' new plant in Camden, Arkansas.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (OTS) is a global leader in the design, engineering and production of munitions, energetics, weapons, armaments, and missile subsystems around the world. OTS empowers the U.S. military and its allies with an extensive range of overarching product segments applied across all levels of strategic and tactical operations, providing a cutting-edge advantage to our warfighters. General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $39.4 billion in revenue in 2022.