(Reuters) – Britain’s BAE Systems has won an $8.8 billion contract to maintain and operate a U.S. Army ammunition plant in Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) said on Tuesday.
The DoD said the contract was awarded for 10 years, from Jan. 1, 2024 to Dec. 31, 2033, to produce explosives, maintain and operate the Holston Army Ammunition Plant.
BAE said in a separate statement that it had been operating the plant since 1999, developing products such as IMX-101, a safer and effective replacement to TNT in artillery, and modernizing the facility for sustained reliability.
The Holston Army Ammunition Plant is a U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility that produces explosives for the U.S. military. The plant has been operating since World War II.
In addition to the plant in Holston, BAE has also been the operating contractor of the Army Ammunition Plant in Radford, Virginia since 2012, which manufactures propellants for the U.S. military.
(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
