A new military leadership position is being assigned to Naval Weapons Station Crane.
According to a report from Inside Indiana Business, U.S. Senator Jim Banks says the Department of Defense plans to place a one-star Reserve Flag Officer at the southern Indiana installation by October first.
The officer will oversee integration of the Navy’s Nuclear Sea Launch Cruise Missile program and the Conventional Prompt Strike weapons system on ships and submarines. The work includes advanced hypersonic missile programs.
Banks says he pushed for the move during meetings and in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao.
Banks also called the assignment the most significant expansion in the history of Naval Weapons Station Crane. He says the move will bring additional manpower and authority to the installation and further expand Indiana’s role in defense and hypersonic weapons development.
Crane, located primarily in Martin County, employs more than six-thousand workers and contractors and covers more than sixty-two-thousand acres.
