Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal will grow from 44,000 employees now to “over 50,000 by 2025,” its senior commander said today, and it plans $2 billion in infrastructure investments in the next five years to keep growing.

By comparison, Encompass Health, one of Alabama’s top employers, has 29,000 employees; Regions Bank has approximately 20,000; and the University of Alabama at Birmingham puts its full- and part-time on-site employment at just over 23,000.

“As Redstone Arsenal grows, so does the Tennessee Valley,” senior Redstone commander Lt. Gen. Edward Daly said at a briefing for the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce. That’s a recognition of the arsenal’s growing impact on an area spanning much of the top half of Alabama from the Mississippi state line to the Georgia state line and north to parts of Tennessee.

Daly said the arsenal is “hiring at record levels,” maximizing all the partnerships and internship programs it can find and still seeking new partners for its missions. It is not just an Army installation, Daly said, but a Federal Center of Excellence with close to 80 tenant organizations including NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and a growing FBI campus.

At the same luncheon, the Chamber of Commerce unveiled its own new recruiting target: veterans. The chamber screened a video it will circulate urging veterans across America to move to Huntsville for growing job opportunities, quality of life, and a like-minded community with thousands of other veterans.

Getting on and off Redstone Arsenal to access thousands of those jobs remains a challenge during rush hours, and Daly ran down a list of road improvements completed or planned, including the expanded Gate 9, expansions to Zeidt and Martin roads, improvements to ease access to Gate 3 off South Memorial Parkway and Resolute Way, a joint effort with Huntsville to add more access from I-565 to the Redstone Gateway office complex at Gate 9. Daly also mentioned new I-565 exits planned at Madison Town Center but did not say specifically how they will affect arsenal access.

Daly said the Army is also planning an “easy pass access” system starting next year.

Redstone Gateway, a large tract of land now leasing to contractors just outside Gate 9, ultimately will hold 4 million square feet of office space and facilities. Forty percent of that is already leased, Daly said.

“What we need from our community is the continued focus on education…,” Daly said. “We have to be prepared to support the workforce for tomorrow, and we know that. We can’t grow without this educational cornerstone.” Daly said the arsenal needs contracting and acquisition experts; engineers, especially aerospace, mechanical and software engineers and administrators for finance, human resources. It also will need welders, plumbers, electricians and other trades to build and sustain the arsenal.

Arsenal commands and offices are working now on battlefield lasers, long-range hypersonic weapons, new “vertical lift” capabilities beyond today’s helicopters, among other missions. It is a finalist in the search for a headquarters location for the new U.S. Space Command.

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