Revision Military made the wonky website Area Development Site and Facility Planning online magazine this week with news that the company had received $1.16 million in loans for inventory, equipment and machinery from the Vermont Economic Development Authority for Revision Ballistics, Inc., a new subsidiary that recently purchased Mine Safety Appliances North America in Newport.
Revision Military, an international corporation with locations in Canada and the Netherlands, is headquartered in Essex Junction. The company manufactures protective gear, including polyethylene composite helmet shells at its plant in Vermont. MSA America also made helmets here before the plant was sold to Revision earlier this summer.
Revision is under contract to produce 100,000 helmets for the U.S. Army over the next 11 months, according to an article in Yahoo News.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has long been a staunch supporter of MSA North America’s operations in Newport, and in an announcement a year ago, he said the $2 million contract between the Army and Revision to development a next-generation helmet system, was at the heart of his idea to bring MSA and Revision together.
VTDigger.org’s Greg Guma reported in May that Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Defense Subcommittee, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the annual Defense Department budget, worked with MSA to develop and field the Advanced Combat Helmet by securing more than $10 million in research, development and procurement contracts for MSA. He has also worked with Revision Military to secure millions in military contracts for research, development and procurement of Revision’s protective eyewear.
It isn’t the first time Leahy has funneled money to MSA and Revision. Leahy visited Newport in 2010 to announce a $21 million contract for Mine Safety to produce advanced combat helmets for the U.S. Army. (Last year only $134,000 in funding for that project was posted.) Revision Eyewear has received $7.3 million in the last few years.
Revision has also received state support. In April the Vermont Economic Progress Council OK’d $734,000 in funding for Revision through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentives program.
