Military Industrial Complex
NSA Crane
One of IU’s most important research and investment partners is the Naval Support Activity Crane Division (NSA Crane) located about 30 minutes away from Bloomington in the company town of Crane, Indiana. NSA Crane is the largest naval installation by geographic area in the United States, the third largest in the world, and manufactures, distributes, and houses a quarter of the U.S. DoD’s joint munitions.
NSA Crane hosts a number of different commands and divisions at the site, including Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA), which builds, refurbishes and houses MK-84 2000 lb bombs, M1122, Tomahawk, Javelin, and Stinger missiles. The US has supplied over 15,000 of these MK-84 bombs to Israel, where they have been used to level city blocks and slaughter civilians in densely populated areas.
NSWC Crane
Another division, the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane), partners with Israeli company Smart Shooter to test and deploy smart rifle and machine gun scopes that use AI to track and target shots. This scope system, called “the dagger”, has been used in Israel since 2018 against peaceful civilian protestors at the Great March of Return, and has since been used extensively as a remote control weapon installed on military watch towers overlooking refugee camps in Gaza as well as checkpoints in the West Bank. Now, Crane is bringing this weapon that “makes every regular soldier a sniper”, to broad use in the US military.
Israeli Startups
The current trend of Israeli investment in Indiana’s defense development and manufacturing ecosystem signals more partnerships to come. Recently, the Israeli defense company RAPHAEL and the US-based defense company Kratos partnered under the name of Prometheus Energetics to invest $175 million in a solid rocket motor munitions campus at Westgate Technology Park at NSA Crane. In return, they will receive $10 million in funding from the Indiana Economic Development Corp and $75 million from the U.S. Department of Defense.
New IU Partnerships
IU and NSA Crane have maintained a deep, long-term partnership since 2011. In October 2023, IU announced a $111 million partnership with NSA Crane towards developing microtechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence for military use. The new investment includes hiring 25 new faculty members with a focus on faculty with Department of Defense experience, establishing a new center in the Luddy School of Informatics focused on microelectronics for defense applications, implementing new degree programs to support the partnership, and dedicating $53 million towards facilities and research costs for developing dual-use technologies.