For decades, the United States military relied almost exclusively on standard Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) ammunition plants to secure its domestic supply of energetic materials, chemicals, and propellants.

Because these sprawling, capital-intensive facilities are heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars, they have historically held a virtual monopoly over military-grade energetics. But today, the cracks in that model are impossible to ignore. Severe supply chain bottlenecks, single-source failure points, aging WWII-era facilities, and brittle legacy software have sparked an urgent push toward Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated (COCO) and fully merchant production.

The shift isn’t easy-energetics manufacturing is notoriously capital-intensive, heavily regulated, and unforgiving. Here is how the private energetics landscape breaks down, spanning historical cautionary tales, established commercial anchors, and the next-generation contenders taking on the challenge.

The Cautionary Tale: High Risk Thin Margin

Green Tree Chemical Technologies

In 2000, private investors carved out Hercules Inc.’s historic nitrocellulose plant in Parlin, New Jersey, attempting to run it as a standalone commercial enterprise. Without steady, long-term procurement commitments or government backstops, Green Tree was crushed by high overhead, regulatory compliance costs, and cutthroat foreign competition. The company filed for bankruptcy and shuttered by late 2003, leaving the military once again dependent on Radford Army Ammunition Plant as the sole domestic source for military nitrocellulose. It remains a classic lesson in the perils of merchant energetics without secured demand.

The Proven Blueprint: Commercial Scale That Outpaced the State

St. Marks Powder (General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems)

The ultimate COCO success story. Originally developed by Olin Winchester in Florida using their patented sub-aqueous Ball Powder process, St. Marks went toe-to-toe with the Army’s GOCO network. By operating under a commercial manufacturing discipline, St. Marks demonstrated that a privately owned facility could produce small-arms and medium-caliber propellants with higher consistency and lower unit costs than state-run facilities. Today owned by General Dynamics, it remains a pillar of global propellant supply.

The New Industrial Wave: Reshoring and Private Operations

Estes Energetics

Spun out from the iconic model rocket engine manufacturer, Estes Energetics operates on an unapologetically commercial model while tackling critical sovereign defense vulnerabilities. When the nation’s sole black powder production site in Minden, Louisiana, shuttered after an explosion, Estes stepped in to acquire Goex, reviving and modernizing the facility. Beyond black powder, Estes is investing heavily in novel chemical synthesis, automated manufacturing, and propellant testing for defense primes.

Kilgore / Chemring Countermeasures

While the Army’s Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA) manages vast stockpiles and government production of pyrotechnics and countermeasures, Chemring operates commercial facilities in Tennessee and Florida. Through its Kilgore Flares subsidiary, Chemring acts as a pure private manufacturer of aerial countermeasure decoys, impulse cartridges, and precision pyrotechnic formulations-proving that highly sensitive ordnance can thrive entirely within private infrastructure.

Day & Zimmermann

Historically synonymous with large-scale GOCO plant operations (running sites like the Kansas, Lone Star, and Iowa Army Ammunition Plants), Day & Zimmermann saw the writing on the wall as the Pentagon decommissioned older facilities. D&Z strategically moved key Load, Assemble, and Pack (LAP) operations to private, commercially owned sites. By doing so, they transitioned from relying strictly on government service contracts to competing as a commercial vendor holding its own physical assets.

The Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) & Hypersonic Challengers

The modern push for commercial energetics isn't just about small-caliber powder and artillery shells-it is driven by the acute shortage of solid rocket motors for tactical missiles, air defense interceptors, and hypersonics.

• Nammo Defense Systems: The Norwegian-Finnish defense leader has invested aggressively in its U.S. footprint (including its Mesa, Arizona and Salt Lake City operations). Nammo delivers combat-proven tactical rocket motors, LAP capabilities, and advanced propellants, operating as a vital commercial alternative to domestic primes.
• Anduril Industries (Adranos): Purdue-born startup Adranos developed ALITEC, a high-performance aluminum-lithium solid rocket propellant designed to dramatically extend the range and payload of standard tactical missiles. Recognizing energetics as the defining chokepoint of modern warfare, Anduril acquired Adranos to scale modular, software-driven SRM production lines.
• X-Bow Systems: X-Bow is overhauling solid rocket motor production by replacing traditional slurry casting with large-format additive manufacturing (3D printing). By printing propellants and modular motors, X-Bow drastically slashes cycle times, tooling costs, and capital expenditures for both suborbital flight tests and military systems.
• Firehawk Aerospace: Firehawk uses 3D-printed fuel grains to build high-performance rocket engines and energetic formulations. Their automated manufacturing approach allows rapid design-to-test iterations, targeting low-cost, rapidly scalable propulsion for loitering munitions, interceptors, and tactical missiles.
• Northrop Grumman / New River Energetics: Northrop Grumman remains an industrial heavyweight in energetics, but their private facilities-alongside private-public modernizations like their Allegany Ballistics Laboratory operations and New River Energetics investments-represent an effort to scale high-rate manufacturing of composite propellants and advanced warheads.

Who Else Belongs on the Radar?

The energetics ecosystem is experiencing its biggest influx of capital and capability in fifty years. Several other private players are actively dismantling the legacy paradigm:

• Ohr: Positioning itself as an emerging “chemical prime” for sovereign defense and critical industries. Ohr uses its proprietary synthesis platform (“Creationary Chemistry”) to build strategic molecules-energetics, propellants, binders, and ignition chemicals-from abundant feedstocks rather than legacy petrochemical refining. By pairing clean, selective synthesis routes with an aggressive acquisition strategy of commercial manufacturing assets, Ohr aims to bypass legacy supply vulnerabilities entirely.
• CellCore Technologies: Tackling the upstream nitrocellulose vulnerability from Canada. CellCore is developing sovereign, commercial manufacturing capacity in Saskatchewan to produce military-grade nitrocellulose and single-base propellants, restoring a vital, non-GOCO precursor supply line for North America and allied forces.
• Verkan AB: A Swedish commercial defense venture backed by Wallenberg Investments. Formed in 2024, Verkan is establishing modern production capacity for propellants, nitrocellulose, and core precursor inputs across the Nordic region-partnering internationally (including an allied MoU with CellCore) to secure sovereign European munitions supply chains against geopolitical chokepoints.
• AT Process Technologies (ATP): Focused on modular, automated production systems for military energetics. Operating facilities in Massachusetts and Maine, ATP develops continuous-flow synthesis platforms-replacing dangerous, century-old batch reactions and nitration vats with compact, skidded continuous manufacturing units that minimize waste and scale safely.
• Critical Materials Group (CMG): A venture-backed manufacturing firm scaling modular, automated production of military-grade energetics and secondary explosives. Through acquisitions of specialized testing and synthesis hubs like Rocky Mountain Scientific Laboratory, CMG is focused on fielding automated processing infrastructure to eliminate domestic raw material choke points.
• Odin Energetics: A joint venture between Solugen Aerospace & Defense and Kraken Kinetics. Odin is pioneering distributed energetic manufacturing through Nitroforge-a containerized, rapidly deployable mobile production unit that converts stable chemical precursors into high-performance energetics and warhead payloads on-demand and on-site.
• Swebal (Sweden Ballistics): Addressing the acute European and NATO shortage of military-grade raw explosives. Swebal is building a private, modern Trinitrotoluene (TNT) facility in Nora, Sweden-the country’s first domestic plant since 1998-to supply allied artillery, mortar, and missile programs with commercial agility.
• Ursa Major: Originally focused on liquid propulsion, Ursa Major has moved aggressively into solid rocket motors with platforms like Lynx and Draper. By positioning themselves as an independent, merchant solid motor supplier, they are taking direct aim at the dual-source bottlenecks throttling American air defense and tactical strike munitions.
• Castelion: Developing hypersonic strike weapons with vertically integrated commercial production. Rather than queuing behind backlogged government testing and casting ranges, Castelion conducts rapid, iterative static motor fires and tests using private infrastructure.
• Aerojet Rocketdyne (L3Harris): While deeply woven into legacy DOD programs, L3Harris’s acquisition of Aerojet has injected private investment to modernize, digitize, and automate legacy casting infrastructure in facilities like Camden, Arkansas, transitioning legacy processes toward agile production rates.
• Frontier Energetics & Ares Industries: Emerging defense-tech players targeting the foundational chemistry layer. These companies focus on micro-reactors, flow chemistry, and next-generation energetic molecules (such as CL-20) to bypass legacy batch vats in favor of flexible, continuous manufacturing.

The Capital Shift Ahead

Moving the defense industrial base away from the vulnerabilities of the GOCO model requires more than just venture funding-it demands multi-year commercial offtake contracts, rapid safety certification pathways, and a Department of War willing to procure energetics as a service rather than owning decaying real estate.

The companies succeeding today aren't waiting for government refurbishment grants; they are treating energetic materials as advanced industrial products that can be iterated, automated, and scaled with private speed.