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NEWS | May 10, 2023

NSWC Indian Head Division’s Agile Chemical Facility Completes First Live Run

By NSWC Indian Head Public Affairs Office

After 17 years, more than $90 million and thousands of man hours, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD)’s Agile Chemical Facility (ACF) has officially produced its first energetic material. The new facility was completed in 2022, and has the capability to produce nearly three times the amount of nitrate ester per hour than the command’s original Moser Plant. While the overall capacity of ACF is similar to the legacy Biazzi Nitration Facility it replaced, the Biazzi Facility was only able to produce two nitrate esters. ACF has the capability to produce all six standard nitrate ester products which were historically produced in the command’s continuous process nitration facilities over the past 60 years.

Nitrate esters are compounds formed from the reaction of an alcohol and nitrating agent and can contain a massive explosive force when initiated.  The ACF produces energetic material from various nitrate esters. The first production run was of propylene glycol dinitrate, or PGDN, which will be formulated into Otto Fuel II: the first product to be delivered to command customers out of ACF.

“As evidenced by its name, ACF was established to be able to rapidly and agilely transition between production of various nitrate ester products to support a number of formulations for munitions,” Dr. Emily Leitsch, Energetics Manufacturing Department Product and  Process Scale-up Manufacturing Technology Division Director said. “There are not many facilities within the United States that have the capability to produce these extremely hazardous and sensitive products. We are also the only supplier of Otto Fuel II to the Navy and our foreign military sales customers.”

Leitsch added how proud she was to be the division’s director during such a historic and pivotal moment for the command as the Navy’s only arsenal. “The team that worked to put this plant into operation is truly an incredible and exceptional group of scientists, engineers and technicians,” Leitsch said. “The amount of rigor they put into the construction and startup of this plant is unmatched. This facility coming online puts the command in position to supply large quantities of nitrate ester to our customers to support production of high performance munitions.”

Energetics Manufacturing Department’s Energetic Chemicals Branch Manager Mark Williams noted while the ACF is an Energetics Manufacturing Department facility, the efforts to build it were a herculean effort across the command and alongside Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command.

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin to express our gratitude for the input and assistance in getting the ACF to this point. While the Energetic Chemicals Branch supported a huge portion of the burden, it was a command-wide effort and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support,” Williams said. “We have an extremely capable team that can meet these types of complex technical challenges. Folks have come and gone over that time but the core atmosphere, what makes this team great, has maintained. It’s the teamwork and trust that this team has built over those years that allow them to do the impossible.”

Williams noted that the technical expertise that the Energetic Chemicals Branch team has garnered throughout the last 17 years will make the current work being done on another critical synthesis facility with the Department of Energy an easier transition.

Energetics Manufacturing Department Director Dr. Phillip Cole noted the versatility of the plant and the expertise of the team when he expressed his satisfaction and appreciation following this first live run.

“ACF is the future of energetics manufacturing, as it is a versatile plant capable of rapidly shifting between products, has more economical production methods, and has a high-level of safety with redundancy, extensive interlocks, and robust remote operations,” Cole said. “The team that built and commissioned ACF demonstrated their skill and expertise time and time again, achieving first article production on a schedule set more than five years ago. How many $100 million programs across the government, or even industry, can say the same? ACF demonstrates that NSWC IHD is well-positioned to take on the challenges of rapidly adding to the energetics manufacturing industrial base as the Navy’s organic capability.”

 

 NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.

 

-NAVSEA-