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Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc., a defense technology company headquartered in San Diego, California, broke ground Tuesday on a new hypersonic testing facility at the WestGate@Crane Technology Park in Odon.
The company said its initial $50 million investment in the Indiana Payload Integration Facility will result in the creation of more than 100 jobs, though there are already plans for future expansion.
The facility near the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, will include an office, laboratory and integration complex that Kratos said will include full-scale environmental testing capabilities to support the development of next-generation hypersonic technologies.
“The goal … is to test a lot of the technologies that are kind of sitting on the shelf right now waiting to mature,” said Dave Carter, president of the Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services Division. “You basically integrate the payload and test the payload in in flight conditions, and have all of the hardware and software systems in place at the facility to do that integration and validation for flight.”
CEO Eric DeMarco said in a news release that the facility represents a strategic investment in the country’s hypersonic capabilities and workforce.
“As threats evolve, the need for rapid, affordable, and innovative solutions is paramount, and Kratos is committed to delivering them,” DeMarco said. “This facility is just the beginning of our long-term investment in the region and the future of hypersonic technology.”
Kratos said the project is just the beginning of its investment in Indiana. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. noted that Kratos plans to invest a total of more than $456 million and create up to 628 jobs by the end of 2029, though specific expansion plans have not been detailed.
The IEDC has committed up to $18 million in conditional tax credits for Kratos, which the company will not be eligible to claim until Hoosier workers are hired for the new jobs.
“Kratos’ decision to establish operations here further cements Indiana’s position as a national leader in defense innovation and advanced manufacturing,” Gov. Mike Braun said in the release. “This investment will not only create high-paying jobs for Hoosiers but will also strengthen our state’s role in supporting the Department of Defense’s critical missions.”
Carter said the company is already looking at attracting the best talent it can find for the facility.
“I think we’ll be able to attract people based on, frankly, the quality of the work and the in the nature of the work,” he said. “It’s very exciting to support this kind of an initiative.”
The Odon facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2026.
The groundbreaking comes less than a month after Kratos announced a joint venture with Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to build a $175 million facility at the American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation’s 550-acre National Security Industrial Hub in Bloomfield.
That facility, about five miles from the site of the hypersonic facility, will focus on the production of solid rocket motors, munitions and other energetics, beginning in 2027. The joint venture, known as Prometheus Energetics, is expected to create about 300 jobs.
Carter said he and company representatives will be traveling to Israel in the coming weeks to scout some of Rafael’s existing facilities to get a better sense of what the Prometheus facility will look like.
“We’re going to leverage a lot of the technical capability that exists at Rafael,” he said. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel relative to the production of these rocket motors. We’re going to leverage the processes and procedures that they’ve been successful in implementing for many, many years.”
The facilities’ proximity to NSWC Crane, according to Carter, brings added benefits for Kratos.
“Being close gives us the ability to to leverage some of the the availability on the base, things like magazines to store rocket motors,” he said. “They’ve got a nice test range there for Prometheus that we could potentially leverage. So being close to the base is just an added value for both facilities.”
Carter added that once both of the new Indiana operations are up and running, the company will look at opportunities for additional growth in other areas, including radar work.
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It also doesn’t hurt that trips to Indianapolis from Crane will be a lot easier and faster now due to the completed I-69.
True!!!