Steve Dart
about
Steve Dart is the President of DetTX and has over 40 years of experience in design and operation of explosive and propellant processing facilities and conventional ammunition design.
Steve decided early in his career that he would like some else to pay for his university education so started work at a British Ministry of Defense (MoD) explosive factory in Bridgwater, UK, as a Student Engineer at the tender age of 18. This meant that he got the chance to become a bad welder; a poor plumber and a shocking electrical fitter before they’d had enough of him and sent him off to school on a MoD scholarship. He also won a National Engineering Scholarship, which meant that he got his beer paid for too! He attended Nottingham University where he studied Chemical Engineering (when the weather was too rough for hang gliding) returning each summer to work on explosive processing projects for the MoD.
After graduating with a BSc. BEng. Honors degree in 1985, Steve moved to Brussels, Belgium to work for Dr. Gerald Bull at Space Research Corporation. Whilst there he worked on the development of production methods and testing program for the Base Bleed unit of the 155mm ERFB projectile in Galdácano, Spain and Liaoyang in China. In 1989 Steve left SRC to take up the position of Resident Engineer for British Aerospace in Santiago, Chile. During his four years in Chile, he oversaw the construction and commissioning of the composite rocket motor manufacturing and testing facility for the RAYO artillery rocket
On returning to Europe in 1993 Steve joined ex-SRC engineers at Mecar in Belgium in the R&D department. After working on a number of weird cartridges, warheads and fuzes and spending many happy hours on the firing range in the Ardennes he became Production Manager and eventually Technical Director before moving to the United States to start Mecar USA in 2005. In 2011 he started a new venture as CEO of Expal USA with the mission to set up the US operations for the European defense company Expal, winning a $156M IDIQ for demilitarization in 2015. Steve spent 4 years as VP of R&D at Day & Zimmermann before finally starting his own business in 2024.
Steve is fluent in Spanish and French and lives in the DFW metroplex with his wife, and 3 teenage sons. Steve became a US citizen in January 2015 but continues to speak in a funny, “you’re not from ‘round here are you?” accent. In his spare time Steve likes to write about himself in the third person.
