Avio USA, the American subsidiary of Rome-based rocket propulsion firm Avio, broke ground September 29 on a 900,000-square-foot solid rocket motor manufacturing complex at the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park in Hurt, Virginia. The facility, Avio’s first US manufacturing plant, represents an investment of more than $500 million and is expected to produce thousands of motors a year for US tactical missile programs, serving Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. HITT Contracting, the eighth-largest US contractor by revenue, is the general contractor on the build, which comprises more than 35 separate structures designed for protective construction and environmental controls.
The timeline is aggressive for a defense build. Construction is expected to finish in late 2028 with production starting in early 2029, and Avio says the plant will create about 1,500 jobs. Virginia offered a state appropriation of up to $100 million subject to General Assembly approval, alongside the Virginia Talent Accelerator workforce program.
The plant is one of the latest in a wave of solid rocket motor construction that one contractor estimates at more than $3 billion since May, one of the most concentrated defense-manufacturing surges in decades. Solid rocket motors have been among the tightest bottlenecks in US missile production, dominated by a handful of domestic makers, and Avio CEO James Syring says the goal is to be an independent merchant supplier able to support multiple primes. Raytheon’s recent multi-year AMRAAM contract, worth up to $20.7 billion, shows the demand the plant is meant to serve.