JSMC looks forward to improving for coming decades

Precious Grundy, The Lima News, Ohio
·2 min read

Apr. 6—LIMA — The Joint Systems Manufacturing Center is preparing to update its facilities. The U.S. Army facility got its start in the 1940s, according to Travis Adkins, Senior Responsible Official for JSMC. After a nationwide investment by the U.S. Army, the organization will have the funding to make changes. Adkins weighed in on the upcoming improvements Thursday afternoon at the Task Force Lima meeting.

"Over the next few years, starting in 2024 for the army-wide there's a significant investment for the entire army organic industrial base," said Adkins. "JSMC is a part of one of 23 sites. The investment planned for JSMC is currently projected for about $558 million over the next 15 years. We currently have about $360 million already in execution that has been in the works for the last few years and is still ongoing at this time."

JSMC is located in Lima producing M1 Abrams vehicles for the United States and other countries.

"Combined, we are going to have around one billion dollars in investment, over a 20-year period of time," said Adkins. "The investment will be in a little bit of everything. The entire infrastructure, all of the machinery that is required for production support. Everything we need to continue to be a viable, world-class manufacturing facility for the army."

Adkins said some 'infrastructure' in the facility needed to be updated due to being almost 100 years old.

"(The goal) is to meet the need in this growth to modernize and bring us back," said Adkins. "We've been here since the early 1940s. Some of the infrastructure dates back to that time. We're replacing it so we're systematically going through resetting, resetting the clock and life cycle of JSMC."

JSMC is one of many businesses in the Lima/Allen County region that will be receiving updates in the years to come. Allen Economic Development President Dave Stratton weighed in.

"On March 1, it was identified that Lima/Allen County was recognized as third in the nation with respect to development for a third-year metropolitan," said Stratton. "That is for a population of 50,000 to 200,000. We had 12 projects that helped hit that metric."

Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.