Muhlenberg County has landed a $435 million Army project to construct and operate the first domestic source of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) in the United States since 1986. U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell helped announce the project on Friday, also speaking to the importance of defense spending.
Officials said the state-of-the-art facility, to be built in Graham, is expected to strengthen the Department of Defense’s munitions supply chain.
The contract was awarded to Repkon USA.
“Our role in the defense sector is a point of pride for the company. We are proud to help our nation’s service members be the best prepared, best equipped, and strongest fighting force on the planet,” said Repkon President Bryan Van Brunt. “I cannot overstate the significance of this facility.”
U.S. Army Major General John T. Reim serves as the commanding general of the Picatinny Arsenal.
“Our mission (at the arsenal) is to develop safe, reliable, and lethal armaments and ammunition, both at speed and at scale, to give our joint warfighters and international partners the capabilities they need to deter aggression worldwide, or if called upon, the decisive tools to fight and win our nation’s wars,” he said.
Reim said that to fill that duty, they are expanding the production capacity of critical munitions, such as 155 artillery, with the goal of producing 100,000 shots per month by 2026.
“This new TNT facility is a key part of our munitions production ramp-up strategy, giving us the added capacity to stay ahead of evolving threats and production requirements,” he said. “It is not lost on us that victory on the battlefield begins in our production facilities, much like the one that will be built just down the road from here.”
Reim added, “This history-making initiative underscores our commitment to strengthening national security and reducing reliance on foreign sources for critical materials. A domestic source of TNT is a crucial step in strengthening and building resilience in our defense industrial base to ensure our armed forces have timely access to essential resources.”
Project leaders said the project is expected to create about 200 construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs.
Van Brunt stressed that the facility would be built with a modern approach focused on safety and efficiency.
“This unique facility will not be like the TNT plants of decades past. This TNT facility will take advantage of state-of-the-art automation and a novel waste neutralization process to make it one of the most high-tech, safe, and environmentally friendly TNT plants ever constructed,” he said. “What’s also exciting to us is that we are doing it in a way that breaks past paradigms to combine commercial production and business practices and concepts with military production requirements. This took courage and vision to do so.”
Van Brunt said he is hopeful that groundwork will be completed in about six months, with the first batches of TNT expected to flow out of the facility in about 36 months.
He also noted the significance of the location of the facility.
“This facility is taking advantage of Kentucky’s highly skilled workforce and bringing new jobs to Muhlenberg County,” he said.
McConnell largely spoke on the importance of spending money on military defense efforts.
“We’re up against a network of authoritarian regimes: North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and Iran’s proxies. … They want to reform the world order in a way that benefits autocratic regimes,” he said. “… A way to look at this is an impending conflict between authoritarian parts of the world and democratic parts of the world, and we have to be the lead.”
McConnell noted that much of the military aid the U.S. has provided to Ukraine is in the form of sending older weapons overseas, while the money allocated by the federal government is actually being spent to replenish and update the U.S. industrial base.
McConnell said the TNT facility is a “spectacular development” and “a breath of fresh air” for Muhlenberg County, as well as an opportunity to be involved in something important for the nation.
“I couldn’t be happier to be here today because I’ve been one of those preaching how important it is to get ready for a larger conflict because the way you get ready for it guarantees you don’t have it. It’s a lot cheaper to prevent war than it is to have one. It’s a lot safer to prevent war than to have one. What’s going to happen here is exactly involved in this larger effort to get America ready to prevent war by being strong.”
Congressman Brett Guthrie similarly stressed the importance of supporting Ukraine and noted that the U.S. is benefiting from the aid package.
“I remember being in a neighboring county and talking about the Ukraine funding, and somebody asked a question if I really believed Vladimir Putin is crazy enough to attack a NATO country because I was arguing we have to defeat him in Ukraine,” Guthrie said. “I said that’s a fair question, but all I can go by is what he’s said he would do. He said he wanted to reestablish the old Russian Empire. … Then I started explaining what the Ukraine funding was, and over half of the funding was to replenish here and spend in America and send equipment to Ukraine.”
Guthrie said he voted for the funding because “although it’s important not only to stop Vladimir Putin from going on into Europe and then involving our men and women, not just our money, it’s important because it rebuilds our military infrastructure that we’ve let slip.”
He added that he’s proud the taxpayer dollars are returning to an economic development project that will benefit Muhlenberg County.
Muhlenberg County Judge-Executive Mack McGehee said he was thankful for the boost to the economy.
“The efforts that Senator McConnell has made (in getting the project) is the greatest thing that we’ve seen in a long time. I appreciate everything that he’s done,” he said. “This is a great day for the United States, bringing this industry back to the U.S. It will be the only place that makes this product, so that’s very special. It’s great for the United States. It’s great for Kentucky. And it’s great for Muhlenberg County.”
McGehee also said the county’s history helped play a role in landing the TNT facility.
“I think one of the factors involved here is we’ve been home to this type of industry for a very long period of time,” he said. “Our residents are comfortable with it. And on top of that, we have used this type of material for hundreds of years mining coal. We’re pretty familiar with explosives, so that makes it comfortable for us to have the industry back.”
