Illustrative: U.S. Army soldiers of the 609th Engineer Company conduct explosive ordnance disposal, 15 June 2026. U.S. Army photo by Crystal Bennett, 106th Public Affairs Detachment / DVIDS (public domain).

US Army Awards $14m to Clear and Rebuild Hawthorne Army Depot Open Detonation Range

By Steve Sawyers MIExpE VR · Defence Analyst & WOME Consultant

Source: U.S. Department of War (Daily Contracts) | Date: 23 June 2026 | Classification: Open Source, AI-Assisted Technical Assessment

EXPLOSIVE SAFETYUXODEMILITARISATION

Technical Summary

On 23 June 2026 the United States Army awarded Tepa-Weston Joint Venture a $14,060,476 firm-fixed-price contract to rehabilitate the New Bomb Open Detonation Range at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada. The scope covers removal of all material potentially presenting an explosive hazard (MPPEH) and munitions and explosives of concern (MEC), including unexploded ordnance (UXO), and the redesign of stormwater detention basins to withstand a 500-year flood event while controlling off-site discharge from a 100-year event or the worst storm of record. Work runs to an estimated completion of 31 May 2028, funded from fiscal year 2026 Other Procurement, Army appropriations. Army Contracting Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois is the contracting activity under contract W519TC-26-C-A042.

Hawthorne Army Depot is the United States' largest ammunition storage installation and the Organic Industrial Base's largest demilitarisation site. Open detonation (OD) and open burning (OB) are core demilitarisation methods there, alongside washout, steam-out, rotary kiln incineration and munition sawing. An open detonation range is the controlled ground where surplus, obsolete or unserviceable ordnance is destroyed by initiating it with a donor charge, a process that disperses unexploded items, fragmentation and energetic residues across the working area over years of use.

An open detonation range accumulates unexploded ordnance and energetic residues over decades of demilitarisation; clearing it before earthworks is the explosive-safety precondition, not an afterthought. ISC open-source assessment, 24 June 2026

Analysis of Effects

The contract sequence is dictated by explosive safety. Earthmoving on a former and continuing open detonation range cannot begin until the ground has been cleared of unexploded ordnance and explosive hazard material, because excavation otherwise risks initiating a buried item. The clearance element is therefore the controlling task: only once the working area is certified can the stormwater basins be regraded. The single bid received reflects how few contractors hold the combined UXO clearance and civil engineering competence this kind of work demands.

The flood-resilience requirement is the less obvious driver. A detonation range holds energetic residues and metal contamination in its soil, so uncontrolled stormwater run-off can carry heavy metals and explosive compounds off site into the surrounding watershed. Designing the basins to a 500-year flood standard, with controlled discharge at the 100-year event, is an environmental containment measure as much as a hydraulic one. It reflects the depot's long contamination history, where past open burning and detonation have left heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls and related compounds in soil and water.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

The dominant hazard is buried or surface unexploded ordnance in an unknown fuze state, which must be treated as armed until proven otherwise. Clearance teams work to recognised explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) procedures, locating items by geophysical survey and disposing of those that cannot be moved by detonation in place with a demolition charge. The net explosive quantity at the range and the categories of ordnance historically detonated there are not stated in the contract notice and are recorded as data gaps. Quantity-distance separation, exclusion zones and access control during clearance operations are governed by the applicable explosives safety regime.

Data Gaps

Open sources do not disclose the area of the range to be cleared, the density, types or fuze states of the unexploded ordnance present, the net explosive quantity historically detonated, the volume of contaminated soil to be handled, or the specific explosives-safety and environmental standards cited in the statement of work. The depot's broad demilitarisation methods and contamination history are drawn from secondary reporting and are not confirmed against the contract notice.

ISC Commentary

This is a small-value award with an outsized signal. The cost of safely operating open detonation as a demilitarisation method is rising, and a $14 million range rehabilitation is part of that bill. Open burning and open detonation remain the cheapest route to destroy surplus conventional ammunition, but their environmental and clearance overheads are catching up with them.

The single bid received is the detail that stands out. Combined UXO clearance and heavy civil engineering on a live explosives range is a narrow competence, and a thin bidder pool raises both schedule and cost risk for a programme the Army cannot easily defer. The demilitarisation backlog does not pause while a range is rebuilt.

For NATO and allied stockpile managers facing their own demilitarisation backlogs, Hawthorne is a useful reference point. The direction of travel is away from unconstrained open burning and open detonation toward contained, instrumented and increasingly regulated disposal. Budgeting for range upkeep and contamination control, not just for the destruction itself, is the lesson that travels.

References

Source-evaluated under NATO STANAG 2022 (Reliability A–F / Accuracy 1–6). Tier 1 = government primary source; Tier 2 = quality news / specialist defence media; Tier 3 = authoritative aggregator / encyclopaedia.

T1U.S. Department of War – Contracts for June 23, 2026, 23 June 2026. (Reliability A / Accuracy 1)
T2U.S. Army – Hawthorne Army Depot: Providing Lethality That Wins, accessed 24 June 2026. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T2U.S. Army – Marines clear range at HWAD for warfighter training, 2025. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T2Nevada Legislature – Hawthorne Army Depot: World's Largest Ammunition Depot (briefing), accessed 24 June 2026. (Reliability B / Accuracy 2)
T3Wikipedia – Hawthorne Army Depot, accessed 24 June 2026. (Reliability C / Accuracy 3)

Corrections & updates welcome. If you hold open-source data that refines or corrects any parameter in this article, please contact [email protected] citing the specific claim and your source. Verified corrections will be incorporated and credited in the revision history. AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product.