Later this morning, SIG will hold the official dedication and unveiling ceremonies for the massive expansion of their ammunition business. The latest expansion, a 210,000 square foot building they call the Jacksonville Arkansas Ammunition Center (JAAC) is the largest piece of a rapidly expanding SIG ammunition campus, a six-building 436,000 square foot complex that employs more than 675 Arkansans.
With the latest expansion, SIG will have spent more than $225 million dollars in equipment and facilities.
It’s difficult to translate 210,000 square feet into understandable words. This interior gives a general sense of the immensity of the new “ultra scaleable” facility. OWDN photo.
But the ammunition being produced here won’t be appearing on shelves in your local gun shop, at least not in the immediate future. The expansion is to enable SIG to supply the ammunition for their 6.8 Next Generation Squad Weapon military contracts. In fact, the facilities are building 6.8 in four varieties, from 6.8 GP (General Purpose) to the 6.8 blanks used in training. It also produces SIG ammo in 300 Winchester Magnum, 300 Norma Magnum, 338 Norma Magnum, and 6.5 Creedmoor, in addition to the various flavors of the NGSW.
Touring the manufacturing areas in advance of today’s official opening, it’s obvious that SIG’s ammo division isn’t setting up for civilians. The final steps in the making of the 6.8 NGSW linked ammunition we watched yesterday brought that home.
SIG’s hybrid ammunition is manufactured and processed in-house. From the basic component (top) to the finished cases (center) to the completed round (bottom) it is tested, re-tested, and inspected before being approved for packing.
Ammunition is manufactured using a combination of technological advances and old-fashioned hand inspection. As the ammunition was made from components, processed and finished, it passed through a number of visual and computerized inspections. As the linked ammunition came off the finishing lines, however, it was hand inspected, machine tested, then hand packed into cartons placed into the familiar green army ammunition cans which were then packed into wooden crates.
The palettes of packed ammunition will look familiar to current and former soldiers. There’s plenty of technology involved, but SIG workers take pride in having inspected each round, belt, box and crate before sending it to our military.
Humans completed each of those steps, not robots. When I asked why that was, the answer brought home the ultimate purpose of linked rounds: “because we want the people who use this ammunition to know that people who care about each of them inspected it before it went to them.”
It’s also obvious that SIG’s planning on seeing that business expand. SIG emphasized more than once that the scalability was to enable them to expand to meet the needs of the United States military and all its allies.
The stage was prepped yesterday, but it will be occupied by dignitaries and SIG officials celebrating the latest expansion of the SIG military business.
This morning VIPs and dignitaries from the government and military on hand to see the facility that SIG’s built. They include Arkansas Governor Sara Sanders, generals, and many state, local and federal dignitaries. They’ll also be joined by SIG’s upper echelon and the proud employees of the Jacksonville, Arkansas facility.
We’ll be there as well. And as always, we’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd
