LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) – Construction of the Great Plains Arsenal on Lawton’s west side is underway, and the CEO of Firehawk Aerospace is detailing what the facility is designed to do.
The facility is designed to produce rocket propellant for a variety of uses. Will Edwards, CEO of Firehawk Aerospace, said the company’s approach to manufacturing propellant began with his co-founder experimenting in a garage.
“When I first got started at Firehawk, I met my co-founder. I had actually known him for a long time, but I learned what my co-founder was working on…and it was 3D printing rocket fuel essentially out of his garage,” Edwards said. “And he wanted to build a space company. So my dad [who] was the third co-founder, brought us all together and this was back in 2019. And he had a really unique way of producing the fuel at the time. And I thought, you know, Ron, instead of going for space, let’s try to build a defense company.”
How the technology works
Instead of the lengthy mixing and curing process used by traditional manufacturers, Firehawk produces an energetic feedstock that can then be manufactured into different types of rocket propellant.
“The end result is this very energetic pellet feedstock. And I can store that feedstock for as long as I want until we have a use case for it,” Edwards said. “And what we like to say is we advanced manufacture rocket propellant. So that can mean 3D print, it can mean compression mold it, or if we want to do larger rocket motors and larger diameter systems, we can extrude it.”
Edwards said the process has cut production time from roughly 60 days to about six hours.
“We’ve cut probably I’d say about a sixty day process down to about six hours. So, it’s significantly cheaper, requires a lot less labor,” Edwards said. “So we’ve been able to really expedite the production of the propellant while cutting costs. Which is why what I think we’re building in Lawton, Oklahoma is so cool because, you know, by at least the end of next year, if not the beginning of 2028, we should be the third biggest producer of rocket propellant in the country.”
Artillery motors and Fort Sill connection
Edwards said artillery motors will be a primary product at the Lawton facility, noting the proximity to Fort Sill, home of the Field Artillery.
“The first products we’re making are artillery motors,” Edwards said. “We should be the biggest producer of artillery motors in the country by next year.”
Jobs and economic impact
Firehawk has committed more than $50 million to the Lawton facility. Edwards said the investment is expected to bring more than 100 new jobs to the area.
“We’re going to employ over one hundred people at this site. I think the average salary is going to be around $90,000 to $95,000 dollars,” Edwards said. “So well paying jobs…jobs that will persist for quite a while.”
Those positions are expected to include technicians, engineers, material scientists, site managers, security and other support roles.
Safety concerns
The project has raised questions from some nearby residents about safety. Edwards said the company is working with outside consultants and industry experts to address those concerns.
“We have a bunch of outside consultants, industry experts, people who’ve been in the industry for decades that are working with us to make sure we’re following every single step, doing everything correctly, and we want to pass our audits and we want our people to be safe more than anything, our people and the town around it,” Edwards said. “We’re investing millions of dollars into that to make sure this is well built.”
The company expects to begin commissioning its first buildings this fall, with low-rate production targeted for next summer and full-rate production expected by the end of that summer.
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