The Pentagon is getting in the black powder business but not to arm a battalion of troops with muzzle-loading rifles.
Black powder, the original form of gunpowder, is not just for fireworks and Civil War re-enactors. It is still used as a propellant for artillery and other weapon systems crucial to the U.S. military. Minden, Louisiana-based GOEX is the only company in the United States that produces it, Defense Department officials said this week.
Operations at the plant were shut down in June 2021 after a fire, according to local media reports. Black powder, first formulated in China more than a millennium ago, is a mixture of sulphur, carbon and potassium nitrate.