Ohio is putting more than a quarter-billion dollars of state funding into a manufacturing plant to build drones and other advanced weaponry.
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JobsOhio, the state's economic development arm, agreed to give a $310M grant to Anduril Industries, an autonomous systems and weapons manufacturer, to build a manufacturing facility next to Rickenbacker Airport, according to an announcement made Wednesday by Ohio state's economic development corporation.
Anduril will build the plant on a 500-acre site owned by CT Realty, which is also adjacent to 4M SF of Class-A logistics buildings previously built by the developer, according to a March press release.
The drone factory will eventually span 5M SF across 10 buildings, with the first phase — a 775K SF building — expected to be completed this year.
CT Realty said in March that it expected to start its second phase, a 915K SF manufacturing facility and a 250K SF showcase and office building, immediately. Anduril previously said it expects manufacturing of military drones and autonomous air vehicles to begin in July 2026.
In order to secure the funding, Anduril said it plans to hire 4,000 workers at an average salary higher than $132K, creating more than $530M in new payroll. It also agreed to spend at least $910.5M to maintain those commitments for the next three decades.
The entire plant is now expected to be fully staffed and operational by 2035, per JobsOhio.
“Anduril’s decision to choose Pickaway County not only brings the largest job creation project in Ohio’s history, it strengthens this state’s position as a global leader in aerospace and aviation innovation while presenting an unmatched opportunity to seize more of the sector’s rapidly evolving supply chain,” JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef said in a statement.
The agreement has been in the works since the start of this year, the Associated Press reported. Anduril will use the plant, known as Arsenal-1, to ramp up its autonomous weapons and systems production, the company said in its own release.
The deal is another recent example of government money spent on advanced manufacturing. Also on Thursday, the Department of Defense invested $400M into a rare earth magnet plant from MP Materials Corp. next to the sole U.S. rare earth mine.
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