After more than six decades of paused large-scale ammunition manufacturing and 36 years since its last historic domestic arms production facility permanently shuttered, the Dominican Republic is set to reenter the domestic ammunition market as part of a broader push for national military and industrial sovereignty. The Dominican Ministry of Defense has formally announced the upcoming launch of a new domestic ammunition assembly plant located in San Cristóbal, a project overseen entirely by the country’s state-run Dominican Military Industry (IMDOM), with the core goal of eliminating the nation’s reliance on foreign imports for all military, recreational sport shooting, and hunting ammunition needs.
This new ammunition facility is not an isolated project: it forms a key component of the country’s first integrated military technology hub, the first phase of which opened to operations in May 2025. The hub has already built out a diverse portfolio of domestic defense manufacturing, ranging from the assembly of Level 3 FURIA tactical armored vehicles, a design engineered entirely by Dominican engineering teams, to fully outfitted logistics vehicles including medical ambulances, prisoner transport trucks, and cash-in-transit vehicles. The site also currently produces the country’s domestic TP-755 Dulus surveillance aircraft, with domestic drone manufacturing already in the pipeline to launch in the near future.
Beyond advancing industrial sovereignty, the centralized military manufacturing hub already delivers measurable cost savings for the Dominican state: per-unit production costs for all goods manufactured at the site run more than 25% lower than the equivalent cost of importing finished products from overseas suppliers.
The ammunition assembly plant is now in the final stages of technical calibration and equipment installation, according to Dominican Minister of Defense Lieutenant General Carlos Fernández Onofre. He confirmed that the facility remains on track to be fully operational by the end of 2026, with a mandate to meet 100% of domestic demand across all three target sectors: armed forces, recreational sport shooting, and commercial and private hunting. The project’s original launch timeline was extended, but official scheduling has been accelerated following targeted budget adjustments and the deployment of specialized military engineering teams to the site.
Production at the new facility will focus on small and medium caliber ammunition that aligns with existing national demand. While full product details remain partially confidential to protect national security, the factory will prioritize standard calibers currently in use by all major Dominican public security and military institutions.
For long guns used by military and tactical units, the plant will produce 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition to supply the country’s recently acquired fleet of IWI ARAD assault rifles and Daniel Defense assault rifles, as well as 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition designated for designated marksman precision rifles (DMRs) and infantry support machine guns including the Negev. This 7.62×51mm NATO caliber is also the standard used for ballistic resistance testing of the armored vehicles produced domestically at the same military hub.
For short-barreled weapons used by the National Police and military security details, the facility will manufacture 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition, the most widely used pistol and submachine gun caliber in the Dominican Republic, which is the standard for the Glock and Taurus service weapons currently deployed by the nation’s security forces.
To meet the non-military mandate of national self-sufficiency for recreational sectors, the plant will also produce calibers for civilian hunting and sport shooting. This includes high-demand 12 gauge shot shells, which are widely used by local hunting clubs and private security agencies, as well as .22 Long Rifle ammunition, the global standard for recreational shooting practice and competitive sport shooting events.