Hurt, United States - Construction has started on a major new manufacturing complex for Avio USA in southern Virginia, advancing a project valued at more than $500 million.
The development is being built at the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park in Hurt and will span approximately 900,000 sq ft. HITT Contracting is serving as general contractor for the project.
Rather than a single factory building, the site is planned as a wider industrial campus made up of more than 35 separate structures, covering specialised production areas, protected facilities, environmental systems and administrative functions.
Avio USA plans to use the complex to manufacture thousands of solid rocket motors each year for US tactical missile programmes.
The facility will represent the company’s first major US manufacturing operation of this kind and is expected to support customers and end users that include Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
The site covers roughly 1,300 acres, giving the project space for its manufacturing buildings, infrastructure and supporting operational areas.
The scale of the development also brings significant construction requirements. The terrain across the site requires careful logistics planning, while the specialised nature of the facilities adds additional technical demands to the build.
Detailed design and procurement are progressing alongside site activity, with long-lead process equipment already ordered for the future manufacturing operation.
Avio USA expects the project to create around 1,500 technical jobs once the facility becomes operational.
Construction is scheduled to run through late 2028, followed by the start of production in early 2029.
The project is part of a broader expansion of US solid rocket motor manufacturing capacity, with several large-scale production facilities currently being developed as demand for domestic defence manufacturing increases.
Virginia has also provided support for the project through an incentive package approved to help establish Avio USA’s new manufacturing presence in the state.
With construction now underway, the Hurt development moves from planning into physical delivery, adding another major advanced manufacturing project to the growing pipeline of industrial construction across the United States.
