Defense Products Firm To Build $20M Facility in Kingston

KINGSTON, NY-Armor Dynamics Inc., a two-year-old military products firm, is planning to build a $20-million, 58,000-sf manufacturing facility here at the Kingston Business Park. The firm expects to create 570 new jobs over the next five years. The firm also has the capability of adding another 200,000 sf of manufacturing space at the site in the future.

Armor Dynamics managing partner and chief technology officer David Warren says that the company plans to begin site work in the next few months. However, a timetable on when construction will begin has not been set, he notes. Once completed, the facility will house the company's manufacturing, research and development and engineering functions.

"We have to sit down with the state and the City of Kingston to engineer a 'green' manufacturing building," Warren says. The locally based company manufactures products for homeland security and the military using a material called Magmacore, a new light weight material that company officials say provides an effective barrier against high-velocity artillery rounds and explosives. The material has applications including in the Armor Dynamics' SecureCan trashcan, V-Blast protective shields and Bunker Blocks used to fortify military structures. The company is also exploring its use in bulletproof vests, reinforced cockpit doors and vehicle armor.

The company currently subcontracts its manufacturing functions to US Health Equipment Co. at 138 Maple Hill Dr. in the Kingston suburb of Rosendale. Warren says the pace of its expansion program will be determined, in part, by product orders. Huck Fasteners, a division of Alcoa, has a 142,000-sf facility at the Kingston Business Park and is the complex's sole tenant at the moment.

The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research recently awarded $522,800 to Armor Dynamics and its academic partner SUNY Geneseo to begin the commercialization of the ballistic panels. Armor Dynamics is also eligible to apply for a $1.25-million capital grant for the purchase of new machinery and equipment for its manufacturing plant.