Avio USA yesterday broke ground on its first US manufacturing facility, an approximately 900,000-square-foot solid rocket motor plant in Hurt, Virginia (see AVIONEWS), that will add significant domestic capacity for US missile and munitions production. 

Located at the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park, the new facility will give Avio USA the capacity to produce thousands of solid rocket motors annually for US tactical missile programs. The company expects to create roughly 1,500 high-quality technical jobs in Southern Virginia.

Avio USA is a subsidiary of Avio SpA, a global rocket and space propulsion reference based in Rome, Italy, and operates under a DCSA Special Security Agreement.

HITT Contracting is leading construction as the general contractor, driving delivery of the advanced manufacturing facility. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2028 with production anticipated to begin in early 2029. The facility is being developed to support solid rocket motor requirements across the US defense industry, including programs for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.