Pine Bluff Arsenal looks ahead to post-munitions role

This article was published on Friday, February 22, 2008 10:26 PM CST in News
By The Associated Press

PINE BLUFF - Workers at the Pine Bluff Arsenal are immersed in the task of safely destroying chemical weapons that have been stored at the site for decades.

The commander of the arsenal, Col. Bill Barnett, is looking beyond the munitions destruction and is working to find a new mission for the arsenal. The arsenal held 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile when it began incinerating the munitions, a process that is scheduled to end in 2012.

"It's not the end of an era," Barnett said Thursday in a talk before a civic club. "It's an opportunity."

More than 2,400 civilians and military members work at the arsenal, a number that includes hundreds of contract workers. The arsenal has a broader mission than dealing with the chemical weapons. The facility produces munitions and chemical-biological protective gear.

Barnett said the arsenal's workers have a "reputation for putting out quality products."

The arsenal generated $165 million in revenues in 2007, almost 100 percent over 2006, and is on track to generate $175 million in 2008.

"We must speak the language business understands," Barnett added. That translates into generating new revenue or reducing costs, the same issues faced by the private sector in the current economic slowdown.

He said he is "taking the arsenal to our customers ... to find new jobs for the arsenal."

Barnett said fighting terror requires weaponry, and the arsenal could play a crucial role. He said the compound at White Hall has "world class" facilities to maintain and test the materials that will be needed.

"We have the support structures we can take advantage of," he said. "That's why I am taking the word to the street ... letting them know we want more business."

Barnett said he can see changes in how the arsenal is perceived. He said he has seen a "positive shift ... some real interest in what we do. ... We are going to keep taking this mission forward."

Prior to chemical weapons disposal operations the arsenal had for 60-plus years stored 3,850 tons of chemical agent, 12 percent of the Army's original chemical weapons stockpile. The arsenal has completed destruction of GB-filled rockets and is now destroying VX rockets. Then the facility is to destroy VX land mines.