Firehawk Aerospace to build $22 million facility in Lawton
May 29, 2025
Firehawk Aerospace CEO Will Edwards announces his company is opening a rocket fuel production facility in the Lawton area at a press conference at the Oklahoma Capitol on Thursday. Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice
A Texas-based aerospace industry will be building a facility in Lawton, Gov. Kevin Stitt said Wednesday.
During a press conference in Oklahoma City attended by Lawton officials, Stitt announced that Firehawk Aerospace would be coming to Lawton. Local economic development officials have been working with Firehawk — which already has a presence in the FISTA Innovation Park — for a year, discussing a location in the city’s west industrial park.
Lawton Mayor Stan Booker, FISTA Innovation Park President/CEO Krista Ratliff and Lawton Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) President Brad Cooksey stood with Stitt as he made the announcement, along with Firehawk Aerospace co-founder and CEO Will Edwards.
Stitt called Firehawk an “innovative rocket fuel manufacturing company” that will be investing $22 million to build a facility and create 100 new jobs in Lawton, adding the firm’s goal is to make innovative rocket fuel more quickly and efficiently.
Edwards said Lawton’s plant will be the first full-scale propellent factory in the United States, one that will produce millions of propellent efficiently, cutting the process time from several weeks to several hours in a facility to be located on 320 acres in the west industrial park.
“We’re excited for the jobs it will create,” Edwards said, calling the project “an incredible opportunity.”
Stitt lauded the Lawton location, noting Firehawk’s announcement on Wednesday is the third major economic development announcement for Oklahoma in the last two weeks, and one that highlights Lawton’s commitment to the defense industry.
“Oklahoma is becoming a national defense hub, thanks to Lawton-Fort Sill and FISTA,” Stitt said, of the innovation park in downtown Lawton that has served as an incubator for new projects. “Businesses like Firehawk are coming to Oklahoma.”
District 63 Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, said the State of Oklahoma’s commitment to the Firehawk project is a program that allows industries to benefit from using withholding taxes as incentives. For Firehawk, that is linked to the Department of Defense and equates to $18 million in withholding taxes incentives, “not a direct appropriation,” he said.
“This is a perfect example of the Department of Commerce and the executive branch using a mechanism on hand to recruit businesses,” Caldwell said, adding he also credits FISTA and the City of Lawton for having the vision to analyze what had been done at Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal and work to make the same investment in Oklahoma.
Cooksey said the announcement was exciting news and highlights a year of work among multiple community entities: LEDC, Lawton Economic Development Authority, Comanche County Industrial Development Authority, the City of Lawton/City Council and FISTA.
“It’s cutting edge technology,” Cooksey said of Firehawk’s investment, adding the project proves the success of leveraging the strengths of Lawton-Fort Sill to attract new industry.
Firehawk Aerospace, founded in 2019, is a pioneering aerospace and defense company whose officials say they are focused on revolutionizing rocket propulsion through 3D printing of thermoplastic solid fuel to produce safer, more efficient and adaptable rocket engines. Headquartered in Addison, Texas, north of Dallas, the firm also has a test facility in Midland, Texas.