Voyager wants Pueblo defense complex to bring ‘peace through strength’

A complex east of Pueblo city limits will play a key role in fulfilling a federal call to accelerate domestic production of missile defense technology and tactical munitions.

Voyager Technologies broke ground on its 150,000 square-foot Voyager American Defense Complex at PuebloPlex on Jan. 29. Speakers at the complex’s groundbreaking ceremony included Voyager Technologies representatives, PuebloPlex leaders, Colorado’s 5th Congressional District Rep. Jeff Crank and Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District Rep. Jeff Hurd.

“This facility here reinforces something that we have been building for a long time and that is Pueblo’s growing role as an aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing center,” Hurd said. “This project matters nationally because the United States is at a real inflection point when it comes to national defense.”

 

Voyager Technologies President and co-founder Matthew Kuta also is a combat veteran who has employed weapons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. During the groundbreaking ceremony, Kuta said that he knows from experience that the United States is in a “strategic competition” with “enemies” like China and Russia.

Operations, advanced manufacturing and testing will take place at Voyager American Defense Complex in Pueblo County. Weapons system components, propulsion systems and energetics will be produced on the grounds of the complex for use “across the U.S. military,” according to a Voyager Technologies news release.

“What’s most important here is ensuring that when the Army calls or the president calls, we can work 24/7, 365 as necessary to ensure our nation’s democracy, because we do have enemies that wake up every morning, around the world, and think about how can they outmaneuver and defeat the United States of America,” Kuta said. “We’re just one little piece of that, but we are fully committed.”

 

Following the groundbreaking ceremony, Kuta told members of the media that the Pueblo complex will assist the U.S. in achieving “peace through strength.”

“When you think about how this specific facility aides in that peace through strength, it’s part of deterrence,” Kuta said. “As you have strong stock plies and the ability to produce rapidly at rate—that is deterrence.”

The phrase and “peace through strength” also has consistently been used by President Donald Trump’s administration. A page on the U.S. Department of War’s website recaps “365 Days of Peace Though Strength”.

“From defending America’s borders and fighting drug trafficking to changes in culture and business operations to better build the nation’s arsenal of freedom, President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spent the past year ushering in a new era characterized by peace through strength,” according to the Department of War’s website.

Voyager expects to employ about 120 at the Pueblo complex. The company is looking to complete the complex “as fast as we possibly can,” Kuta said.

James Bartolo
Pueblo Chieftain