Benét Laboratories

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Benét Laboratories is the U.S. Army’s main facility for designing, developing, engineering, producing, and supporting large-caliber weapons. It works on cannons, mortars, and recoilless rifles, as well as tank gun mounts, turret components, and ammunition handling systems. The lab began its weapon research at Watervliet Arsenal in upstate New York in 1887 and officially became Benét Laboratories on May 9, 1962. By 2012 it employed more than 250 people.

Benét is part of the Weapons & Software Engineering Center within the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, located at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The lab runs simulations of gun firing, performs static and dynamic load testing up to 5 million pounds, and conducts environmental testing. It also uses a Bruker D8 Advanced X-Ray Diffraction system for some tests.

The laboratories are named after Brigadier General Stephen Vincent Benét, the eighth chief of Army ordnance. Key milestones include the 1965 founding of the Benét Laboratories Tech Library and the development of a 120 mm mortar testing system in 2015. In 2016 the Army awarded a five-year, $9.5 million contract to KeyLogic Systems for technical support at the Watervliet Arsenal facility.