ENERGETICS WORKFORCE IS GRAYING OUT.

• Author: Carberry, Sean

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana--Whether it is cyber, microelectronics or another technology field, one of the most pressing concerns among government and industry is developing the future workforce. Nowhere is that challenge greater than in the field of energetic materials--the chemicals used to make propellants, pyrotechnics and explosives.

"This is not the bright, shiny ball area. It's not really a growing area," said Tom Russell, president of Defense Science and Technology Consultants, during the 2022 Breakthrough Energetics Conference held at Purdue University and organized by the National Defense Industrial Association's Emerging Technologies Institute.

There are several obstacles to attracting new workers into the energetics field: the constriction of the industry in recent decades, the lack of a commercial market for energetic materials, inconsistent government investment and the wide range of workers needed, Russel noted.

"The disciplines are everything from mechanical sciences to electrical engineering to chemistry... physical sciences, it's really a very diverse community," Russell said.

"Energetics and Lethality: The Imperative to Reshape the U.S. Military Kill Chain," a 2021 report by the event cosponsor, the Energetics Technology Center, identified the workforce as a vulnerability.

"Research in [energetic materials-related] chemistry and chemical engineering suffers from generational attrition (together with insufficient replacement hiring), competition from more lucrative technical fields and the minimalization of [science, technology, engineering and math] at all levels of American education," the report stated.

While compensation is one of the factors that deters potential candidates, there are bigger impediments, according to the report. Professionals "are motivated by mission and a drive to solve hard problems.

"Consequently, they leave the defense enterprise if they lack the necessary skills, tools and opportunities to solve problems in support of defense missions, and because investment in the [energetic materials] field barely maintains current workforce capabilities, to say nothing of building new ones," the report continued.

Panelists identified other factors that turn candidates away from the energetics industry such as outdated facilities, excessive bureaucracy--even in small tasks like purchasing needed materials--and jobs located in areas with little to offer young professionals and their families.

The other side of that...