NEWPORT, Vt. — A banner tacked to the outside of Galvion’s manufacturing plant in Newport, Vt., announces that the company is hiring, urging every passing car to help “Protect Those Who Protect Us.”
Galvion Inc., a Canadian defense company, produces ballistic helmets in a plant here. The headgear is built to withstand impacts from small, fast-moving projectiles. And business is booming. Galvion supplies helmets to the U.S. military, NATO and the Israeli military, among others, winning multiple multimillion-dollar contracts to outfit soldiers across the world. The military supplier has become a major economic driver in the northeast corner of Vermont, a state better known for Bernie Sanders, Ben & Jerry’s and antiwar activism.
In addition to its numerous military clients, Galvion has supplied tactical units within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to government contracts reviewed by VtDigger. Drawing on those records, along with its own staff photos and images published by other news outlets, VtDigger matched distinctive features of the company’s helmet designs to those worn by federal agents, identifying what appear to be Galvion helmets at high-profile immigration operations, including the tense daylong standoff in South Burlington in March.
In the Northeast Kingdom, where jobs remain scarce and growth has lagged, Galvion is a major employer supported by local leaders across the political spectrum. And with new federal funding proposals on the table, the company could be poised for considerable expansion.
The workforce required to meet helmet demand has made Galvion one of the city’s largest employers. Newport has needed employers like Galvion for years, especially after past promises of economic stimulus have failed.
For many in Newport, the Galvion plant is a feel-good story about good jobs and keeping the good guys safe. Yet Galvion’s helmets are also being used by the DHS, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol tactical units, which have carried out some of the most controversial immigration operations in major U.S. cities.
Numerous photos and videos from federal immigration enforcement operations show officers wearing what appear to be Galvion’s helmet models. Such visuals include images of tactical unit members at scenes of fatal shootings in Minneapolis, during raids in Chicago and protests in Los Angeles, and breaking down the door of the Dorset Street house in South Burlington on March 11.
Last summer, Congress allocated more than $170 billion to DHS over the next four years, with a large chunk of that funding going to ICE. Flush with cash, ICE began rapidly expanding its operations, including its tactical units, and DHS signed a $15.5 million contract to purchase Galvion helmets for ICE starting in September 2025.
Dan Cowan, the president of LionHeart Alliance, the vendor ICE used to purchase the Galvion helmets, confirmed by phone that his company had been awarded a $15.5 million contract with DHS for Galvion helmets.
LionHeart Alliance has acted as a middleman for a number of deals to outfit DHS officers and routinely promotes those deals on social media, including contracts to outfit ICE with ballistic equipment, weapons, and patches. LionHeart is listed as an authorized dealer by Galvion’s website and promotes Galvion products to federal buyers. Cowan would not comment on LionHeart’s relationship with DHS or on his company’s decision to provide ICE with Galvion products.
Newport Mayor Rick Ufford-Chase said that when it comes to area businesses, his focus is on community impact.
“I don’t ask questions as mayor about their business or who they’re selling to, about any business in town,” Ufford-Chase said, referring to Galvion. “It’s not my role to tell Galvion who they should or shouldn’t be selling their equipment to.”
In response to emailed questions about its relationship with ICE, a Galvion spokesperson said the company does not comment on specific contracts, programs or customers.
“We are a non-partisan organization and do not take positions on political matters,” the statement said.
A Newport jobs anchor
Galvion began in 2001 as a glasses manufacturer under the name Revision Military, based in Montreal. Revision found success when it was contracted to produce eyewear for the Canadian military, setting it on a path to becoming a trusted vendor across much of the military world. Spurred by a glut of defense spending at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, Revision acquired MSA Safety’s ballistic helmets division and took over its Newport production plant in 2012.
Local Newport officials welcomed the influx of manufacturing jobs, giving Revision a five-year property tax abatement to buy and develop the manufacturing operation, according to a tax abatement application and City Council minutes. In 2019, Revision pivoted its focus to helmets, selling off its eyewear division and rebranding itself as Galvion.
Galvion’s presence has only grown since then. Since 2012, the manufacturing plant has expanded from 16,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet. The original operation employed 45 workers, but Galvion has since grown it to 238. Last year, Galvion invested $12 million in expanding operations, according to the Newport Daily Express.
The company highlights that its helmets protect operators in the most elite echelon of the U.S. military, with the Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Special Operations and the Ranger Regiment among the buyers. A title banner at the top of a page of the company’s website reads, “For the heroes.” Galvion also provides helmets for local law enforcement tactical units, including the Newport Police Department.
Although neither Galvion nor ICE would agree to interview requests, VtDigger was able to identify the helmets in photos and videos by the distinct shape and characteristics of the rails and mounting points of Galvion’s Caiman and Hellbender models, the main helmets used by ICE. Those models are designed for military use and include attachment points for radio communication equipment and night vision goggles.
Helmets that appear to be Galvion’s are visible in footage and images from high-profile incidents, including protests at the scenes where federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
Using staff photos as well as photos and video published by other news outlets and DHS accounts, VtDigger identified specific tactical units by the patches officers wear and found that Galvion helmets appeared to be used by several units under the DHS umbrella, including its Border Patrol Tactical Unit and Homeland Security Investigations Special Response Teams.
In one video posted to Instagram by Greg Bovino, the former Border Patrol commander, tactical officers can be seen wearing what appear to be Galvion helmets as Bovino leads a convoy of Border Patrol officers on a patrol of the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago.
Last month, after a chaotic ICE operation in South Burlington resulted in protesters surrounding a house with three immigrants inside, an ICE Special Response Team was called in to break down the door. In numerous photos taken by VTDigger during the raid, ICE agents wore what appeared to be Galvion helmets.
Growth ahead?
Newport has struggled to attract outside investment into its economy. More than a decade ago, developers announced plans for several major projects in the area, including a biomedical manufacturing plant, a downtown complex with retail and office space, a hotel, and improvements at nearby ski resorts. All would be made possible with support from foreign investors through the EB-5 visa program, developers said. But those plans fell apart after the discovery of widespread fraud.
By then, an entire section of Newport’s downtown had already been leveled as part of the redevelopment plan, and the city is still looking to fill the empty lots a decade later.
Beyond providing jobs, Galvion is a lead sponsor for Newport City Downtown Development, a nonprofit working to revitalize Newport’s downtown and fill those gaps. According to the organization’s website, Galvion donated $15,000 last year.
“Galvion’s Newport facility has been an important part of the Northeast Kingdom for more than a decade, supporting over 200 skilled manufacturing jobs, with continued investment in the site,” a Galvion spokesperson wrote in an email to VTDigger. “We are proud to be part of this community and contribute to regional economic development, workforce opportunities, and local initiatives.”
Beyond its statement on economic impact, Galvion declined other requests for email and telephone interviews.
The unemployment rate in Orleans County was 5.9% as of February, more than twice the statewide average, according to the Vermont Department of Labor. The 238 jobs at the Galvion plant account for nearly 2% of the entire workforce in the county, according to Loralee Tester, the executive director of the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce.
Tester said the region needs quality manufacturing jobs and that jobs at Galvion, which come with good pay and healthcare benefits, have significant knock-on effects on the wider community.
The mayor, who is also Newport City Downtown Development’s executive director, emphasized the importance of Galvion’s economic impact while expressing a more nuanced personal perspective.
“At the end of the day, this area of the country has been economically marginalized and beaten up for decades, and we are grateful for any community-engaged corporation that wants to come and set up shop here,” Ufford-Chase said. “Galvion is among the most important in our community. People need jobs in this community.”
On a personal level, Ufford-Chase said he is deeply concerned with ICE raids. Before becoming mayor, he was an immigrant rights and antiwar activist.
“So, as ironic as it is for me as a 20-year advocate or more for immigration, nothing thrills me more than to hear Galvion say, ‘We want to increase the number of people we can employ here.’”
In addition to the large ICE purchase, Galvion has won smaller contracts for helmets with Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service in the last year.
Although Galvion regularly promotes its contracts in news releases and on its website, it does not appear to publicly acknowledge its relationship with DHS — on its website or otherwise.
Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice officials did not respond to requests for comment or were not reachable.
Congress is now weighing authorizing additional funding to DHS in current federal budget debates, and ICE’s recent immigration enforcement tactics are at the core of many Democrats’ disapproval of DHS funding.
“What ICE has become is not an agency of immigration and customs enforcement. What it has become is Trump’s domestic army,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in a statement addressing the Senate to call for halting funding to the agency in January.
Meanwhile, Newport’s top elected officials are more focused on the factory’s local impact.
“It’s not a question of whether I’m comfortable or uncomfortable, if they’re good corporate employers,” Ufford-Chase said.
Rep. Woody Page, R-Newport, said that although he is not a supporter of some of ICEis actions, he supports Galvion and its place in the community.
He pointed out that Galvion’s contract with DHS was agreed to months before the controversial operations and deaths over the winter and said the company could not be expected to renege on those commitments.
“What’s going on with ICE, you know, that shouldn’t have anything to do with what the company is doing, frankly,” said Page.
The Newport mayor summed up his thinking with a nod to realities in the Northeast Kingdom.
“In a perfect world, I’d love to not have to take any of that kind of support,” Ufford-Chase said. “But the truth is, these jobs matter a lot to the people here.”
This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.