Materials Development and Manufacturing Support for the U.S. Navy

In response to increasing operational demands and evolving mission requirements of the warfighter, the U.S. Navy required engineering support for the full life cycle of energetic materials—including research and development, process development and scale up, full rate production, sustainment of manufacturing capacity, and the safe demilitarization and disposal of energetic products at end of life. At the same time, the Navy faced growing requirements to ensure safety, quality, regulatory compliance, and production resilience across aging infrastructure and constrained industrial bases. Meeting all these objectives would require designing and commissioning new processes; optimizing and modernizing existing processes; and restarting and qualifying legacy processes to restore critical capacity. To address these challenges, the Navy required a contractor capable of providing integrated, multidisciplinary engineering support for safe, efficient, and compliant execution of energetics programs across all phases of the energetics manufacturing lifecycle.

ERG met this need with a multidisciplinary team of engineers and experts in energetic materials, production operations, safety, and regulatory compliance who supported all phases of energetic materials development and manufacturing—from concept through production and end‑of‑life disposition. Their support encompassed:

• Production engineering support for energetic manufacturing operations, including planning and leading production runs, optimizing processes, troubleshooting production issues, supporting equipment maintenance, and overseeing product quality, testing, and acceptance.
• Process safety and hazard analysis of new, modified, and legacy energetic manufacturing processes to ensure compliance with current Navy requirements, applicable codes and standards, and industry best practices.  
• Comprehensive explosives safety support to ensure safe siting and operation of energetics facilities and processes.
• Facilities planning and programming support to ensure that facility requirements were technically sound, accurately scoped, and aligned with NAVSEA OP 5 siting constraints, process safety requirements, and long‑term operational and sustainment needs.
• Startup and commissioning of energetics equipment and facilities to confirm they could safely transition into full operational use.
• Development of comprehensive safety and technical documentation, including safety data sheets, standard operating procedures, process flow diagrams, production readiness reviews, technical data packages, and equipment and facility drawings.
• Waste characterization and air permitting and disposal assessments to determine appropriate handling and disposal methods and ensure compliance with federal, state, and local environmental regulations.

ERG’s support helped the Navy sustain and modernize its energetic manufacturing processes while meeting mission requirements, maintaining regulatory compliance, and reducing technical, operational, and safety risk.