St. Marks Powder is a subsidiary of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

Ordnance and Tactical Systems manufacturing ball propellant in

Crawfordville, Florida Crawfordville is an unincorporated community, census-designated place (CDP), and county seat of Wakulla County, Florida, United States. The population at the 2020 census was 4,853, up from 3,702 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Tallahassee ...

. St. Marks makes about 6,000 tons per year, making it the world's largest producer of

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or another motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicle ...

.The company is a member of the

Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several Am ...

(SAAMI).

History

Large-scale ball propellant manufacture began during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

at the

Olin Corporation Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Acciden ...

plant in

East Alton, Illinois East Alton is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,786 at the 2020 census, down from 6,301 in 2010. History East Alton was incorporated as a village in 1893 (some say 1894). William Cobb, namesake of Cobb ...

. Population growth of the

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, metropolitan area encouraged finding a more remote location for a modern production plant. The St. Marks manufacturing facility was built in 1969 on a large plot of undeveloped swampland south of

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

, at near sea-level elevation between the St. Marks River and the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

. Plant operation was transferred to St. Marks Powder in 1998.

Products

St. Marks Powder supplies nearly 100 percent of the propellant used in

5.56×45mm NATO The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, commonly pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked centerfire intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, ...

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...

, 9×19mm NATO, and .50 BMG ammunition for United States military small arms and 20mm ammunition for the

M61 Vulcan The M61 Vulcan is a Hydraulic machinery, hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatics, pneumatically driven, six-Gun barrel, barrel, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling gun, Gatling-style rotary cannon which fires 20 mm caliber, rounds at an e ...

aircraft cannon. Similar propellants are sold to commercial manufacturers of rimfire and

centerfire ammunition Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...

or marketed by Alliant Powder, Winchester, and Hodgdon Powder Company for civilian

handloading Handloading, or reloading, is the practice of making firearm cartridges by manually assembling the individual components ( metallic/ polymer case, primer, propellant and projectile), rather than purchasing mass-assembled, factory-loaded com ...

. Other propellants are used for military 60mm and 81mm mortar rounds,

rocket-assisted projectile A rocket-assisted projectile (RAP) is a cannon, howitzer, Mortar (weapon), mortar, or recoilless rifle round incorporating a rocket motor for independent propulsion. This gives the projectile greater speed and range than a non-assisted Ballistics ...

s, or dispersing non-lethal agents used for

crowd control Crowd control is a public security practice in which large crowds are managed in order to prevent the outbreak of crowd crushes, affray, fights involving drunk and disorderly people or riots. Crowd crushes in particular can cause many hundre ...

, marking, or

area denial An area denial weapon is a war offensive and Defensive fighting position, defensive and device used to prevent an adversary from occupying or traversing an area of land, sea or air. The specific method may not be totally effective in preventing ...

Sources

{{reflist Ammunition manufacturers Companies established in 1998 General Dynamics Wakulla County, Florida Companies based in Florida