Politico: “Nestled in the remote backwoods of southern Arkansas, some of the nation’s busiest weapons plants are gearing up for historic levels of defense spending and to replenish the stocks of artillery, high-caliber ammunition, rockets, missiles and propulsion systems that have been siphoned off to help Ukraine even the battlefield odds against Russia. Widely circulated images of burned out Russian military vehicles littering the roadways are the result of Javelin anti-tank missiles. A major Ukrainian counteroffensive now underway has been fueledby access to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, which is helping turn the tide against Russian forces.
And the pressure is growing to keep the production lines humming to feed what has become a surprisingly long conflict that could stretch on for many more months before it is done. Demand for munitions in Ukraine has been so high that it has drained inventories in the U.S. and Europe. Thousands of missiles and artillery rounds have already been siphoned off from armories on both sides of the Atlantic and now there is a scramble to replenish them….
But there are significant shortfalls in skills among the local population. Arkansas has historically ranked near the bottom of states for educational attainment. In the southern part of the state, the challenges are even more acute. For example, recent government data shows that in Camden, roughly half the adult population has a high school equivalency or less and only 15 percent have a four-year college degree. For now, the solution to the recruiting problem means making the area more attractive for workers from outside the region.
“That’s my worry,” John Schaffitzel, president of the Highland Industrial Park, confided over dinner at Postmasters Grille, a steakhouse in the restored 19th century post office that once served the bustling port city on the banks of the Ouachita River and now caters to the defense workforce. “The energy is here. How do you get assistance and programs and put grants in the right place to give a sense of quality of life for these workers? How do you create a quality of life in a town of 12,000 to attract skilled workers and engineers to come and live?”’”