ARMS Initiative

The ARMS Initiative is a line item in the Army's FY 2026 budget, specifically under the Procurement of Ammunition appropriation, focused on Ammunition Production Base Support. The program, formally known as the Armament Retooling and Manufacturing Support (ARMS) program, is designed to repurpose idle capacity at both active and inactive Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) Army Ammunition Plants, as well as the GOCO Hawthorne Army Depot, by encouraging commercialization of these facilities. The initiative was established by Congress in the FY 1993 Defense Authorization Act and later codified under 10 U.S.C. 7551-7555.

The primary goal of the ARMS Initiative is to sustain critical manufacturing capabilities and skills within the Army's munitions industrial base. By attracting commercial tenants to underutilized Army assets, the program aims to ensure that essential production capabilities and workforce expertise remain available for national defense needs. This is achieved by leveraging commercial activity to maintain readiness and prevent the loss of specialized skills that are difficult and costly to reconstitute.

The program's objectives also include reducing facility operating and maintenance costs for the Army. By bringing in private sector tenants, overhead costs can be distributed across multiple contracts, which in turn lowers the Army's cost of ownership. This approach allows the Army to manage portions of its ammunition infrastructure as a commercial business, improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness while maintaining control over critical assets.

Another key objective of the ARMS Initiative is to decrease the cost of products manufactured at these facilities. By increasing facility utilization and spreading fixed costs over a larger base of production, both military and commercial, the program helps drive down unit costs for munitions and other products. This benefits the Army's procurement budget and enhances the competitiveness of U.S. defense manufacturing.

The program also seeks to provide opportunities for small businesses and to accelerate private sector economic development, employment, and investment in communities where Army ammunition plants are located. ARMS resources are used for activities such as facility strategic reuse planning, marketing, building renovation and recapitalization, equipment purchase, relocation or consolidation, and environmental baseline studies and site surveys. These efforts are intended to make Army facilities more attractive to private industry and to foster local economic growth.

For FY 2026, the budget requests base procurement funding for the ARMS Initiative. These funds are allocated to support financial and marketing investments aimed at attracting revenue-producing tenants to GOCO Army Ammunition Plants and the Hawthorne Army Depot. Revenues generated from commercial tenants are intended to reduce overhead and total annual operating costs, improve and maintain existing buildings for current tenants, and upgrade vacant buildings to entice new tenants.