Ammunition and components production

Jordan Low’s military career began with the Israel Defense Forces as he became a sharpshooter for their Golani Brigade, Unit 51, also known as The First Breachers, where he served for three years and was deployed on tours in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon.

In 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, a Hamas anti-tank missile hit a building occupied by Low’s squadron. Low guided his team to safety after the building went up in flames. However, while helping his squad escape, he suffered severe smoke inhalation from the missile strike. Low was the last person to leave the building and was immediately evacuated. After a six-week stay in ICU and an additional 10-1/2 months of recovery, Low returned to duty, finished his contract, then enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While there, Low realized two things: he wanted to start a business in the defense industry and he wanted to work with his family.

Jordan and his father Jeffrey Low started in the arms business, obtaining a license in Israel with the Ministry of Defense along with several Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs) in the United States, and started to deal arms between Israel and the U.S. The Lows, however, noticed stagnancy in the market and after researching decided to pivot to ammunition and ammunition component manufacturing which became First Breach Inc. Now they have a 75,000ft² facility with another 116,000ft² of contiguous space for growth in Hagerstown, Maryland, at the Hagerstown Regional Airport. The A10 Warthog and PT-19 were previously manufactured in their facility by Fairchild Corp. and now models of each hang in the First Breach lobby. After massively retrofitting a space that had been unused for 34 years, First Breach now manufactures six different lines including 9mm casings and projectiles along with .223/5.56 casings and projectiles on top of their own cupping and smelting lines.

“We’ve installed our own tool and die area where we put in a POS mill lathe and EDM sinker so we can manufacture our punches and dies for our own equipment so it’s really vertically integrated,” Jeffrey Low says.

First Breach’s facility contains pallets of brass as they plan on using millions of pounds of material this year to make ammunition and components. In the rafters, an American flag hangs every few yards because Low knows First Breach finds themselves in a unique position when it comes to manufacturing ammunition.

“we’re only one of four cup manufacturers in the country and we’re one of only three American-owned in the country.” — Jeffrey Low, First Breach Inc.

“This is really about being American made. Our smelting area, we designed ourselves. We smelt our lead, it gets pushed into crucibles, we create our own lead billets, and then we use a hydraulic press, we do it about five times a month, and we create our own lead wire,” Low says. “It’s a very unique thing, smelting on premises and making our own cups. I believe we’re only one of four cup manufacturers in the country and we’re one of only three American-owned in the country.”

Quality is paramount

First Breach is also in the midst of opening their own testing range in the basement of their facility, but the testing isn’t just done when they fire bullets on the range; they test all their material before it even hits the factory floor.

“We have a laboratory here, we have three or four different quality assurance checkpoints on every line,” Low says. “When the brass first comes in, we not only log everything into our system, but before we actually put it on any kind of spool, before we decoil it, we bring it in here, we test it, and make sure the hardness is correct, the thickness of the brass is correct before we start anything, we even hand load as well, just for testing.”

Since their manufacturing is self-described as unique, the team at First Breach had to reconstruct most of their equipment to fit their own specifications, including their mills, lathes, and EDM sinkers. They changed everything including pneumatics, lasers, load cells, and bearings to make sure the factory runs efficiently and to the quality their customers expect.

“We have a laboratory here, we have three or four different quality assurance checkpoints on every line.” — Jeffrey Low, First Breach Inc.

Once they begin their day around 6am, the team at First Breach rolls up their sleeves and begins manufacturing every one of the lines, but will gear production based on demand such as focusing on 9mm ammunition for sheriff’s departments on the East Coast. Their team is cross-trained on one line to the next so they can help each other as needed. Most of their customer base is law enforcement but First Breach also sells retail along with selling to other manufacturers and distribution channels.

“Regarding the U.S. military, we are going to be looking to sell to our military where it makes sense,” Low says. “So many things rely on Congressional approval and certain awards. For a business like ours, we’re big enough to make a big dent in staff and bottom line, but we’re also small enough that we don’t have to worry about moving products”

Talent pipeline

When it comes to growing their company, First Breach fell into some luck with who will run their machines in the future because of their location. “This was a complete accident, we’re totally lucky in Washington County, Maryland, we have two different schools for machinists. Where other companies may have difficulty finding the right fit for talent working in their factory, we have guys rolling off the assembly line, and they want jobs,” Low says. “We’re developing a program for interns to give back to the community, give somebody a job, and hopefully hire a certain portion of them when they graduate. So, as we grow, we’ll have more and more jobs for those people coming right out of school.”

About the author: Jake Kauffman is managing editor with GIE Media’s Manufacturing Group. He can be reached at JKauffman@gie.net.

First Breach Inc.
https://www.firstbreach.com