Senator Banks Applauds New One-Star Position at Crane, Highlights Indiana’s Defense Leadership

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor, highlighting Indiana's leading role in America's defense industrial base and applauding the Department of War's decision to assign a One-Star Reserve Flag Officer to Naval Weapons Station Crane.

Click the image above or view full speech here:

Remarks as prepared:

"Madam President,

Indiana sits at the crossroads of America. But we sit at the crossroads of more than just freight traffic and geography. Indiana is also the crossroads of our country's defense industrial base. Indiana's defense and manufacturing industry is helping make America stronger every single day.

And now that one of our most important military assets, the Naval Weapons Station Crane, will be getting a one-star Reserve Flag Officer, Indiana's defense industry will be stronger than ever before. And I just wanted to come to the floor and talk about how Indiana is playing a leading role in America's defense industry.

Indiana has one of the highest concentrations of manufacturing jobs anywhere in the country. And we have a great business environment, which is why we have a major defense footprint in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where BAE Systems, L3Harris, Raytheon, Ultra Maritime and General Dynamics all call home, all while employing thousands of Hoosiers.

Indiana leads the nation in steel production, and the steel mills in Burns Harbor forge the steel plates that make up our Navy's ships.

And Indiana is home to some of the brightest minds working in defense.

We have top engineering schools and industry leading hypersonics hubs at places like Crane, Purdue and Notre Dame.

At Purdue, the Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility is running some of the most advanced wind tunnel tests anywhere in the world, and the results of those tests will help better our advanced missile technology.

Purdue also has a presence at Crane at the WestGate@Crane Technology Park, a 750-acre campus dedicated to the research and development of hypersonics, energetic materials, and micro-electronics.

At Notre Dame, the Hypersonic Systems Initiative is focused on researching and developing advanced hypersonic flight vehicles. Notre Dame is also part of the Naval Engineering Education Consortium, a Navy-funded research and workforce bridge that allows Notre Dame students and faculty to work on hypersonics projects taking place at Crane.

But perhaps our most coveted asset is the Crane Naval Weapons Station. Crane is the third-largest Navy base in the world. In less than a decade, Crane has made nearly 2,000 new hires and has had over three billion dollars in economic impact on Indiana.

It's been incredible to watch Crane grow into a truly state of the art defense industrial powerhouse.

Earlier this year, I took part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the Prometheus Project at Crane. Prometheus will be a leader in the production of Solid Rocket Motors, which are vital for critical munitions that are increasingly in short supply.

And I was proud to fight hard in Congress to secure $150 million in the One Big Beautiful Bill to help projects like Prometheus take off.

Crane is doing some of the most advanced missile and hypersonic testing and development anywhere in the world.

I helped secure almost half a billion dollars for the MACH-TB program, a joint Department of War effort to accelerate hypersonics testing, which is taking place at Crane.

Crane is also managing the MACH-XL program, another Department of War initiative designed to accelerate the development, testing and production of affordable, high-speed hypersonic weapon systems.

And Crane is also leading the development of the Navy's Nuclear Sea Launch Cruise Missile, known as SLCM-N.

Mr. President, I've only scratched the surface of the incredible defense projects taking place in Indiana. But it is precisely because of how important our defense industrial industry is, especially at Crane, that I applaud Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao's decision to assign a one-star Reserve Flag Officer to Crane.

This is the most significant expansion of Crane since its creation. It will bring game changing new authorities and manpower to our state and further cements Indiana as the heart of America's hypersonic enterprise.

The one-star position will be responsible for integrating the Navy's Nuclear Sea Launch Cruise Missile and Conventional Prompt Strike weapons systems onto surface ships and submarines.

It will bring more manpower, more authority, and more high-skilled jobs to Indiana while strengthening Crane's role in protecting our country. Our country will be stronger for this move.

Mr. President, President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth are rebuilding our nation's military to make it even more lethal than it was. And part of making out military stronger is by revamping the defense industrial base.

Well, look no further than Indiana, which is leading the charge and showing the rest of the country what a robust defense industrial base can look like. Hoosiers will continue to work hard to make our country safer, and I look forward to welcoming a new One-Star officer to Crane later this year.

I yield the floor."

###