ACMI, John Hopkins University collaborate to build manufacturing workforce in US
The university’s Whiting School of Engineering will create safety and training initiatives focused on the company’s National Security Industrial Hub and Munitions campus in Bloomfield, Indiana.
ACMI maintains relationships with multiple universities, including Purdue University, Chief of Staff Paul Kadzielski said in an email Wednesday morning. Purdue is located in Indiana, and John Hopkins University is located in Maryland.
However, ACMI’s partnership with John Hopkins University is “broader than the National Security Industrial Hub in southern Indiana or the munitions sector,” Kadzielski said. “It will involve engagement across our national network and across technical disciplines.”
The company will work across stakeholders in the Whiting School of Engineering “to engage best-in-class expertise,” he said, including the school’s Office of Translation and Research and its Energetics Research Group.
Several of the critical initiatives the engineering school will undertake include assessments to enhance facility design for safety and efficiency.
Other initiatives include developing “rigorous frameworks” for operating complex manufacturing environments that prioritize safe-scaled energetics production and other key materials and mechanisms, according to the company. The school is also designing and implementing specialized safety training programs for personnel involved in energetics production.
Kadzielski said that artificial intelligence may be used, but did not comment any further. “The training that Johns Hopkins is designing and implementing will benefit all tenants of our National Security Industrial Hub,” he added.
The training that Johns Hopkins is designing and implementing will benefit all tenants of our National Security Industrial Hub, including Prometheus, Kadzielski said.
ACMI’s NSI hub and munitions campus have been in the works over the past three years.
In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded ACMI $75 million through the Munitions Campus Pilot Program. Fifty million dollars of the funds went toward purchasing shared equipment, and the remaining $25 million went toward transitioning research and development to production and supporting and improving the domestic supply chain, according to DOD’s press release.
The agency’s program was designed to reduce barriers for U.S. businesses, leverage and spur private capital and establish regional manufacturing ecosystems. It’s also meant to rein in overlap between the defense and commercial markets, combining demand to increase production at lower cost in a bid to compete with foreign suppliers.
Furthermore, the munitions campus strategy would reduce supply chain risk and apply advanced manufacturing technologies and processing innovations to reduce costs for DOD-specific needs.
“Our National Security Industrial Hub will focus on companies engaged in the defense industry, but not exclusively,” Kadzielski said. “The campus is also open to commercial manufacturers, members of the supply chain, and other industrial companies.”
An estimated $600 million of private investment will fund the first phase of the NSI hub, Kadzielski said. While the investment does not include DOD’s $75 million, it does include Prometheus Energetics’ $175 million for its solid rocket motor manufacturing plant, which is set to begin operations in 2027.
The missile manufacturer, a joint venture between San Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Israel-based Raphael Advanced Defense Systems, was formed in 2025.
