Camden plant gets ammunition contract, plans ribbon cutting

Camden News 2-8-10   (Reports from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette were used in this article.)     

   The American Rheinmetall Munitions Inc. plant in Camden will celebrate its official opening Feb. 17. Activities are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and will including a ribbon cutting ceremony and a visit by U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
   The company has been awarded a contract by the U.S. military to produce ammunition. The 2010 Army ammunition budget has allocated $74 million for the procurement of Mk281, which has the potential to positively impact local jobs and jobs within Rheimetall’s American supply-chain, a recent news release from the company stated.
   The contract "means big jobs for Camden," said Kate Roa, a public relations official speaking for American Rheinmetall of Stafford, Va., a subsidiary of Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH of Germany.
   The plant will produce 40 mm, high-velocity training cartridges fi red by grenade launchers. The company says the facility is the only plant in the country that produces the specialized ammunition. Roa said the cartridges are nontoxic and were created to fi x problems associated with 40 mm projectiles made in the 1970s.
   "If you’re picking up a 1970 design, you could pick up one that hasn’t exploded, so it could explode on you," she said. With the new cartridges, she said, "there’s no risk of bodily harm and there’s no risk of contamination in the soil."