Lee — As part of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerate Program (MMAP), Patriot Armored Systems, headquartered in Lee, was awarded a grant totaling $200,000 on March 4. It will use the funds to purchase additional equipment and improve the quality of the production of its security glass, a product resistant to bullets, blasts, and forced entry. The monies will also be used to provide additional training to at least 11 company employees at its Lee facility.
“Patriot Armored Systems was an exceptional applicant that demonstrated a strong potential to create new jobs in the region and upskill their current employees,” said Christine Nolan, director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech Collective that launched the MMAP in June 2021.
Patriot Armored Systems: using the grant to expand its critical safety products
Headquartered on Crystal Street, Patriot’s products support the U.S. Armed Forces and government departments by providing its unique glass to military vehicles and embassy buildings. The company, founded in the 1990s by Phil Martino, also maintains a Cincinnati facility it acquired two years ago that focuses on military parts manufacturing. It has 55 employees in Massachusetts and 35 employees in Ohio.
The grant was awarded to Patriot in partnership with Pittsfield’s Berkshire Innovation Center, with the latter serving in a consultant capacity, helping to guide and mentor the company in its forward progress. According to Patriot Armored Systems President Stephen Donnelly, the Center’s Executive Director Ben Sosne approached him about the availability of the MMAP grant and followed up with a tour of the Lee facility. The meeting ultimately led to the partnership with the nonprofit.
In a statement, Sosne called Patriot a “leader” in the industry and a “great example” of the innovative firms operating in the Berkshires. “We really want to focus on being the leader of engineering, innovation around complex ballistic solutions to solve the challenges of transparent armor and survivability in the future,” Patriot Armored Systems CEO Amy Rose said to The Berkshire Edge in a virtual call.
Being a small company, she said the grant award was “exciting.” “We’re always searching for the next innovative recipe for transparent armor, whether it be government buildings or military vehicles,” Rose said. Citing the size and cost of the materials, she said the company is seeking new solutions to deal with these challenges.
Specifically, the grant will be used to improve seaming the multiple protective layers of glass “in order to stop that ballistic threat,” Donnelly said to The Berkshire Edge, with the grant serving as an opportunity to replace some of the company’s older machines, Rose added.
The business offers varied sized customized windshields for vehicles and windows for buildings, as well as glass for products such as riot shields, she said. “A customer will come to us and ask us for our expertise or if they have something in mind, and that’s how we create [the product],” Rose said, noting the proprietary nature of many requests. “There’s not that many people that do what we do.”
With its glass windshields and windows used in all aspects of defense, she acknowledged that Patriot’s products are “very specialized” and require much testing. “If you think about a military vehicle, someone sitting behind that [wheel], we have a very critical product that we make … a critical product that saves lives, so I feel like maybe that’s why we were chosen [for the grant],” Rose said. “With the support of this grant, it will allow us to hopefully do some amazing things in the future in terms of ballistics and survivability.”
Defining the MMAP award
The award marks the first time Patriot has received MMAP funds, and the company was part of a fourth granting round with 17 grants awarded out of 61 applicants statewide. A tally of $3.14 million was remitted to program qualifiers, manufacturers who agree to use the awards for new capital equipment to “enhance production, meet customer demand, increase workforce skills for employees and boost job creation,” according to a news release.
In total, the companies receiving this past round of annual awards estimate that the funds will be used to create between 78 and 115 jobs, increasing the skills of 63 to 98 employees, the release stated. The criterion for receiving the award includes the number of new jobs to be created; prospective improvements in operations; new markets and customers affected; cost sharing with a partner; alignment with key industries in the state; adding workforce training and career growth opportunities; and contributing to an outcome that touches on geographic, social, racial, and economic equity.
Since its June 2021 launch, the program has already provided about $11 million in projects for 56 small- to medium-sized businesses in support of innovation and workforce development across the Commonwealth, the release stated.
