The Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Alaska returns to its homeport at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., following a strategic deterrence patrol. (Bryan Tomforde/U.S. Navy) ()
Joplin battery producer Æsir Technologies Inc. has secured a contract from the U.S. Navy to increase its capacity to manufacture battery packs for submarines.
CEO Randy Moore said it could mean job growth in the future for the Joplin company.
Moore said the $15.8 million contract with BlueForge Alliance will build and partially equip a 17,000-square-foot expansion of the company’s plant at 8125 E. 26th St. in the Crossroads Business and Industrial Park.
BlueForge is a Texas-based organization that works with the U.S. Navy on its submarines.
“We are honored to be selected by the Navy to increase our production capacity for this critical technology,” Moore said. “This expansion will not only benefit the Navy but also position Æsir as an industry leader in advanced Nickel-Zinc battery solutions.”
The company said the contract is built around its advanced nickel-zinc battery that provides improved high-rate performance and long cycle life, intended for use in underwater naval applications.
To accommodate this growth, Æsir will obtain state-of-the-art equipment and expand its Joplin manufacturing operation.
The company said it also will undergo a rigorous qualification process to ensure that the large-format nickel-zinc battery cells produced with the new equipment will meet the standards of the U.S. Navy.
Moore said the Navy is working on a future contract that could be between $25 million and $30 million and would expand Æsir’s capacity from building one “ship-set” of batteries per year to eight ship-sets a year.
He said the the company has about 50 employees now, but it could expand to between 250 and 300 employees when it reaches full capacity.
“Submarines currently use lead-acid batteries,” Moore said. “The advantage of nickel-zinc over lead-acid is they last about twice as long and they’re more energy-dense, so you can increase the power in them by about twofold or threefold in the same space. The same size battery with three times the power, that’s part of the reason they’re looking at a new kind of battery.”
Moore said the company has other contracts with the military and provides batteries for the U.S. Air Force’s Minuteman III ballistic missile program and the U.S. Army’s upgraded M1 Abrams tank program.
In addition to military programs, Æsir is working to move into providing batteries for commercial airliners, replacing the now-standard nickel-cadmium batteries with nickel-zinc batteries with more capacity and reliability.
Moore said the company is also working to provide battery backup power for data centers and AI computing centers.
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