Eglin unveils new $135 million facility for munitions development, testing

The Air Force Research Lab’s Munitions Directorate marked the official completion of a new $135 million Advanced Munitions Technology Complex at Eglin Air Force Base with a ceremonial ribbon cutting Dec. 15.

The safety briefing before the event spoke to the dangerous work done by the lab, which is responsible for the research, design, development and testing of all explosive weapons technologies for the U.S. Air Force. Currently, the lab has approximately 850 airmen, Defense Department civilian employees and defense contractors working at its facility.

Years in the making, the AMTC is designed to consolidate the directorate's operations at one location and modernize the 1960s-era explosive-testing infrastructure.

“What it really does is pull people together that are in disparate facilities, including facilities not located here in Northwest Florida,” said Mike Lindsay, technical adviser of the Energetic Materials Branch, Ordnance Division of the AFRL’s Munitions Directorate. “A lot of the capability we have here doesn’t exist (anywhere else) in the Department of Defense today.”

That capability includes being able to make explosives from scratch, press and mill them into whatever shape necessary and then test them in a controlled indoor environment. Previously, explosive tests would have to be conducted on the Eglin reservation and subject to scheduling, weather conditions and environmental regulations. The controlled indoor blast chambers allow researches to gather data on explosive tests with much more sophistication than previously possible.

Blast test chambers can be fitted with a wide variety of sensors, and researchers will be able to conduct multiple blast-testing experiments at the same time. The chambers are designed to be able to accommodate a test of up to a 10 kilogram explosive charge.

“It’s designed in principal that you could stand right next to that tank and set off 20 pounds (of explosives) and be safe,” Lindsay said. “I wouldn’t recommend it; that’s going to be a loud thump, but you would be protected.”

One of the main goals of the new complex is to allow for the collaboration of multiple branches of the military, scientific experts and military contractors.

“This is a national asset,” Lindsay said. “It’s built by the department of the Air Force, but it’s an asset for the entire defense enterprise to come here. “We envision this as a gathering place of the top minds in the country to be able to advance weapons technology faster than we’re able to at this time.”

And this need to be able to rapidly meet current and future threats by adversaries was echoed by AFRL Munitions Directorate Deputy Director Segrid Harris, who spoke during Thursday's ceremony.

“Things that we did not have the capacity to do before, we will have the capacity to do now,” Harris said. “And capacity is the key; capacity allows you to go further; capacity allows you to accelerate; and capacity allows you to change, so that none of us has to pay the price of losing.”

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: New $135 million Advanced Munitions Technology Complex at Eglin