HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Whether you've lived in Huntsville your whole life or recently moved here, there's bound to be someone in either group who doesn't know what the Redstone Arsenal actually is.
"There's so much that goes on out there. Things that impact us from a national, international and quite frankly, intergalactic type of environment, whether it's missile defense, whether it's space, whether it is the intelligence community or law enforcement, there's so much that goes on out there. It truly is a federal campus of excellence, that used to just be basically Army but now there are so many. I think they announced 70 plus tenant organizations out there that do a tremendous amount for our nation," said Huntsville/Madison County Chamber President and CEO Jeff Gronberg.
Basically, the Arsenal is a culmination of defense organizations that all occupy the same space.
Smaller organizations and businesses also occupy this space and help support these tenants, like NASA and the FBI, for example.
This not only helps create mutually beneficial relationships between tenets, organizations and the community but also a breeding ground for innovation.
"Redstone really leads the way in innovation. We started out with where we're at by, you know, putting the man on the moon basically. Like, you could put a man on the moon, like, look at what we're doing here! And we've kind of taken the ball and run with it. Whether it's missile defense, Army aviation, and I think the companies in town have taken that ball from organizations and they said, 'hey, run with it,' and we've done that part and so you'll see a lot of companies here that start their own innovation lab or innovation center because they're customers on Redstone. They have that need and it's just kind of working together in that," said Canvas, Inc. Business Development Director Andrew Melton.
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The Arsenal has not only paved the way for innovation here in the Tennessee Valley but it's also provided the region with a lot of employment opportunities and a lot of economic growth.
"All of these other organizations that come in the Mazdas, Toyotas, the Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Polaris, all of those, those have come along afterward. But that baseline capability that Redstone provides allowed Huntsville to be successful and to grow into those types of activities. And so the arsenal is still an incredibly important both economic engine for Huntsville, but also a national capability to help us defend our nation," said Gronberg.