Community and capability: Picatinny Arsenal showcases defense mission to local leaders

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - Picatinny Arsenal hosted the Morris County Chamber of Commerce LEAD Morris Class of 2026 for “LEAD Morris Economic Development - Picatinny Day” on May 27, during which approximately 30 community members toured the northern New Jersey U.S. Army installation.

The visit was part of LEAD Morris' 10-month program in which participants take a day-long field trip each month to various business, government, or education facilities in Morris County. The theme for the visit focused on the Arsenal’s mission and impact on the local community.

Founded in 1991, Leadership Morris is a community education program of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce. The program teaches business professionals and non-profit executives about the opportunities, challenges, institutions, and the people of Morris County. After a leadership change in 2022, Leadership Morris officially changed its name to LEAD Morris.

The curriculum is designed for both established leaders and for persons identified as future leaders whose business acumen and community consciousness will help to make a difference in Morris County.

Since Picatinny became involved in the program in 1998, 37 Arsenal employees have graduated from the course. Donna Campbell, Director of the Garrison’s Plans, Analysis, and Integration Office, and a 2005 graduate of the Leadership Morris program, coordinated the installation support for the Class of 2026 visit, along with her staff.

This year, Command Sgt. Maj. Claudia Tapia, U.S. Army Garrison Picatinny Arsenal Garrison Command Sergeant Major, will complete the program and become the 38th graduate from Picatinny.

Picatinny Arsenal is one of the top three employers according to the Morris County Office of Planning and Preservation, and the installation’s capabilities are unique and vital to the Nation, as the workforce leads the advancement of armament technologies and engineering innovation for the U.S. military.

The Picatinny Arsenal garrison supports mission partners that use unique laboratories, special facilities, and various performance measures to evaluate prototype designs, thus reducing development cycle time.

Improvised explosive device (IED) defeat technologies, drones, small, medium, and large caliber conventional ammunition, precision-guided munitions, mortars, fire control systems, small-arms weapon systems, howitzers, gunner protection armor, warheads, fuzes, and insensitive munitions, are all part of Picatinny’s scope of work.

As part of the Military Defense Day visit to the Arsenal, Lt. Col. Craig A. Bonham II, Picatinny Arsenal Garrison Commander, provided opening remarks to include providing an overview of the organizational structure of the installation and its 26 mission partners.

Bonham went on to explain how each organization has its own distinct mission, and the garrison performs functions that keep the installation operating, while ensuring readiness and a vibrant quality of life, but also relies on community partnerships outside the installation’s cannon gates as well.

“A lot of the impact that we do here at Picatinny Arsenal, we cannot do without the support from our partners in Morris County, Rockaway, Wharton, Jefferson, all the neighboring townships. We have great partnerships with them and keeping those partnerships in good keeping is something that is part of my responsibility as the Garrison Commander here so we can keep this installation and community thriving,” Bonham said.

Gregory Roehrich, Deputy Director of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center’s Enterprise and Systems Integration Center, followed Bonham in presenting. He provided an overview of the Armaments Center, Picatinny’s largest tenant organization, and offered a perspective of how the research and engineering conducted on the Arsenal supports our nation’s warfighters.

“In the past five years, Picatinny Arsenal executed $400 million in New Jersey contracts,” Roehrich stated. Roehrich went on to say that of the $275 million in contracts that were assigned in Morris County, “21 percent were awarded to small businesses.”

David Rogers, Systems Integration Department Head, with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, Picatinny Detachment, provided brief overviews of his organization’s mission and capabilities and the Navy’s return to Picatinny Arsenal in 2011 after a 50-year absence, following Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) initiatives that consolidated personnel from various naval stations across the country.

“It has been a really great collaborative effort between the Navy and the Army throughout the years,” Rogers told the class.

Rogers' organization focuses on the research, development, and lifecycle engineering of Navy gun systems, advanced ammunition, and ordnance packaging, handling, storage, and transportation (PHS&T) systems.

After a working lunch, the class took a tour of the installation’s fire house for a briefing on mutual-aid assistance to Morris County, and then Frog Falls Aquatic Park, part of Picatinny’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Program which supports servicemembers, family members and employees and is a vital quality-of-life framework that directly supports military readiness and resilience.

The class also toured several military vehicles and platforms, the Armaments Center’s Experimental Verification and Validation Assessment Lab which is equipped with technological tools to conduct human-in-the-loop experimentation throughout the development cycles of armaments systems, and the new Makerspace Advanced Manufacturing Facility which provides Army engineers with the tools to design, prototype, and manufacture parts, enhancing the Army's ability to innovate and respond to the needs of the modern warfighter.