Origins of the Military Factory
And no, this factory has never been inspected by the UN.

MilitaryFactory.com began as most sites across the web do - as a smallish 25-page static website dedicated to providing casual information on basic military hardware. The site began in July of 2003 and recently saw its fifth year anniversary (July 2008). Our first entry into the database version of the site was the OH-58 Kiowa helicopter in the helicopter section (which we sadly note was not finished until 2007!). In its early form, the site covered just the more prominent US military hardware and new entries were tackled as time (and motivation) allowed. All work was handled by a single web operator and owner.

Ten site redesigns later, a 1,200 record-sized database and double that amount in images. MilitaryFactory.com has grown into something special. Traffic reaches well past the days of 500 unique visitors and nears 10,000 uniques on great days. We now cover weaponry from all of history dating back to the early days of a man wielding a hastily-constructed mace (at the very least we are trying to expand that section :)).

Our strongest draw seems to be a source other for people to access from anywhere in the world that isn't Wikipedia.com - plus our site is prettier. We go beyond the traditional generic stats reporting and offer up statistics, images (or illustrations when appropriate for the entry), comparison programs, conversion calculators, aircraft 3-views and cockpits, listings of military equipment broken down by conflict, nation and even by manufacturer.

We wont say that this site is free of errors - they're just bound to pop in through one of the thousands of write-ups that have been done. But an email to us mentioning errors or inconsistencies are dealt with in a quick and appropriate fashion - making you a vital, if indirect, contributor to our website. One can only hope that you take away something from our site and we hope it is a generally positive experience because we want you coming back.

Until recently, all input on the site has been completed by a single person - which in itself is something noteworthy considering the size of it all today. We hope that MilitaryFactory.com meets a level of quality that you're looking for in a free online reference and we will continue to put time and effort into the reference so long as you keep returning.

Where do you get your images from?
All images throughout the site actually come through a combination of sources. Most photography are publicly available works from the US Department of Defense. Additional works (mostly the B&W stuff) is generally from the public domain. It should be noted, however, that any illustrative works appearing on MilitaryFactory.com are exclusive to the site and come from the works of Dan Alex (of www.RunawayStudios.com) and are labeled as such in the bi-line of each entry. This in itself adds a uniqueness to content particularly when imagery to a certain aircraft, gun or tank is hard to come by by other means. Images go a long way with us and, as such, we prefer that every entry on our site be represented by at least one image - even if it is illustrative. We're sure you'll agree.

Can I reuse MilitaryFactory.com images?
All public domain and US Department of Defense imagery are free for you to use and reuse as you see fit. However, any illustrations labeled as from "Courtesy of Dan Alex" and containing the MilitaryFactory.com watermark may not be reused in any form without consent in writing from MilitaryFactory.com.

Hope that all helps in providing a little insight into what MilitaryFactory.com is all about. We'll keep working on the site so long as you keep stopping by - plenty here to busy your time with.

Our Site Disclaimer can be found here.

Our Site Privacy Policy can be found here.

Our ugly-as-hell, unformatted Site Map can be found here (unformatted to promote quicker downloading times for those who actually wish to access the page).

All web SEO and business-related consulting is brought to us by KyleWilliams.com. This guy knows his stuff - we've got the evidence to prove it after five years of working with him.

You can direct any information, exclusive photography you wish for us to use, comments, critiques, etc... in writing to militaryfactory at gmail dot com.

Thanks for getting this far down the page and reading this sentence.

~ MilitaryFactory.com