If you've been following Ridgeline Defense over the past year, you might have noticed we've been quieter than usual. Not because we've slowed down—quite the opposite. 2025 was our most transformative year yet, with major acquisitions, strategic separations, and infrastructure buildouts happening behind the scenes. Now that the dust has started to settle, we want to give you the full picture of what's been happening and what's coming next.
Our Vision: Focus with Scale
Our vision for 2026 and beyond is simple: focus with scale. That means delivering world-class training at purpose-built facilities while clearly defining each product brand's distinct mission. We're set to grow without losing the standards and culture that made Ridgeline what it is today.
This year marks intentional separation and expansion on two fronts: geographically with the Gulf Coast Training Center acquisition, and operationally with enhanced manufacturing capabilities, and infrastructure improvements in New Hampshire. Training, manufacturing, and product development are no longer trying to live under one umbrella. Each business now has its own structure, its own leadership, and its own resources to grow independently while still benefiting from shared infrastructure and values across The Ridgeline Group.
Long term, we're committed to being the gold standard for serious end users—people who value capability, accountability, and longevity over hype. We're laser-focused on continuity of instruction and curriculum across multiple locations and a growing team of instructors.
Gulf Coast Training Center: Expanding Our Reach
The acquisition of the Baker, Florida facility was part of our larger acquisition of ALTUS Shooting Solutions. For Ridgeline Defense specifically, the Gulf Coast Training Center (GCTC) checked three critical boxes: location, infrastructure, and scalability.
The facility gives us year-round training capability in a more centralized location with access to a strong regional airport network. It has an established training footprint that would have taken years to replicate from scratch, and it puts us where we already have high customer demand. Just as importantly, it relieves the seasonal and capacity pressure we faced in New Hampshire, where we were essentially operating a full year's worth of operations inside eight months.
The GCTC facility brings us a much larger, more usable footprint. While our total acreage in both locations is similar, the usable footprint down South is substantially larger. We're planning infrastructure improvements to ensure both facilities can deliver the same training to the same standards, though each location will leverage its unique geographic attributes. For example, the Gulf Coast allows us to reach 1200 yards relatively easily, while White Mountains Training Center (WMTC) offers different terrain and wind conditions that create their own training opportunities.
This isn't a franchise model where we drop the same cookie-cutter setup at every location. Each facility has its own character and capabilities, and we'll lean into those while maintaining absolute consistency in quality and standards.
ALTUS Shooting Solutions: E-Commerce and Custom Precision Rifles
The ALTUS Shooting Solutions acquisition brought more than just the Gulf Coast Training Center—it brought a robust e-commerce platform and custom rifle operation that we're aggressively expanding. We're completely revamping the ALTUS website with an interactive custom gun builder that streamlines the configuration process and ensures customers get exactly what they need. Behind the scenes, we're implementing a full ERP suite to streamline operations, improve inventory management, and deliver faster turnaround times. Our focus is on expanding product offerings specifically for precision gas gun competitors and law enforcement sales, bringing the same attention to detail and performance standards that define everything we do. ALTUS gives us the infrastructure to serve a broader market while maintaining the boutique, high-performance approach our customers expect.
One Training Ecosystem, Two World-Class Facilities
The White Mountains Training Center (WMTC) in Dalton, New Hampshire and the Gulf Coast Training Center (GCTC) in Baker, Florida will work together as a single training ecosystem. Curriculum, instructor standards, and operational oversight are unified across both locations. Students should be able to move between facilities and receive the same level of quality and accountability regardless of location.
Two of our instructors—Larry and Nolan— made the move from New Hampshire down to Florida to implement our training curriculum. This was done to ensure that every Ridgeline course offered at the Gulf Coast Training Center will be delivered to Ridgeline standards using our methodologies, programming and coaching style.
Our instructors will travel between locations throughout the year when needed, but we're not rushing to hire a bunch of people just to fill roles.
Finding Ridgeline-quality instructors is difficult—they don't grow on trees. We hire based on what we call the three P's: pedigree, performance, and personality, in reverse order of importance. First, candidates need the necessary background. Second, they need to step to the line and perform right now, today. Third and most importantly, they need to be someone students want to spend time with and learn from—people who understand that our clients come for training.
We're unwilling to jeopardize the brand or client experience we've built by simply rushing to scale. Nolan Roe has been promoted to Director of Training and has been tasked with overseeing the standardization of our systems and instructor development. He's ensuring continuity not just from class to class, but from one generation of instructor to next. The group of instructors we have now has truly stepped up to carry the torch, making what could have been a difficult transition much easier.
White Mountains Training Center: Continued Refinement
Just because we've expanded south doesn't mean we're done in New Hampshire. We have ongoing plans for capability improvements—enhancing existing ranges, structures, and support infrastructure. Our focus is on buttoning up the loose ends we still see around the facility rather than simply making it larger. We want to be very selective about expansion, ensuring we've perfected what we have before adding more.
Hartmann Defense: A New Chapter for Our Rifles
One of the biggest questions we've been getting—especially at SHOT Show and across social media—is: where are the rifles? Where's the RD-15? Where are the LPRs? We've even seen a surge in the secondary market, with our rifles fetching above original retail prices due to scarcity.
Let us be clear: we didn't manufacture that scarcity on purpose.
Here's what's been happening: we're transitioning all rifle manufacturing from the Ridgeline Defense brand to a new brand called Hartmann Defense. This separation needed to happen because training and manufacturing are fundamentally different businesses. For too long, we were asking the same people to be instructors and handle customer service, to teach classes and manage inventory. That created confusion and compromise.
By creating Hartmann Defense as a separate entity, each brand can focus on its core mission without compromise. For you as customers, that means clearer accountability, better products, and improved support from people whose only job is the Hartmann Defense brand. When you call Hartmann Defense, you'll get people dedicated exclusively to rifles—not splitting their time between the range and the phone.
When we started down the rifle path, the rifle was a passion project, and we built what many would agree is a pretty good rifle—one that's performed exceptionally well in competitions in the hands of shooters who could choose anything. But working with contract manufacturers taught us some hard lessons about reactivity, development timelines, and inventory management.
Bringing Manufacturing In-House
To solve these challenges, we've acquired a machine shop with a long history in the firearms world. Rather than standing up a facility from scratch, we brought our operations into an existing shop with decades, if not centuries, of combined experience across its team in designing, engineering, programming, fixturing, and machining.
This shop has worked with dozens of major firearms companies and has far more capacity than we currently need. We're the definition of boutique—we make a singular product with laser focus. It's better to exist within a shop's excess capacity and have access to all that expertise than to try to build everything from scratch and hope the numbers work out.
Right now, there's a gap between when we run out of legacy Ridgeline-branded components and when new Hartmann Defense components come off our machines as we industrialize production in-house. We're working through that transition as quickly as possible while maintaining our quality standards.
Support for Existing Ridgeline Rifle Owners
If you own a Ridgeline-branded RD-15 LPR, here's what you need to know: all existing Ridgeline rifles remain fully supported. Warranty terms don't change. Hartmann Defense will handle service, parts, and repairs using the same or better processes. There will be no gap in support, no orphaned products, and no ambiguity about who's responsible.
Parts availability and long-term serviceability are core requirements, not afterthoughts. We must be able to support our customers not just today but well into the future, and this separation only makes that better because the team is now solely focused on rifles.
If you go to the Ridgeline site and click the rifles tab, it'll take you right to Hartmann Defense. If you find Hartmann Defense directly, you'll get the same customer service team. Whether your rifle says Ridgeline or Hartmann on it, it's fully supported by the company.
What's Next for Hartmann Defense
The Ridgeline RD-15 receiver set and LPR (light precision rifle) will be reindustrialized under Hartmann Defense. You'll see that single offering grow into a larger line with a focus on precision, duty, and mission-specific configurations. That means different barrel lengths, profiles, materials, and handguard options—all built around the same billet receiver set.
We're making some incremental design improvements driven by end user feedback. Many precision gas gun competitors wanted ambidextrous controls, and we wanted that from the start too. We're delivering an all-pro, no-con ambi solution. There will also be small changes to how we machine the handguard and other tweaks that leverage the experience in our shop and incorporate feedback we've received.
For a Gen 1 product, we accomplished almost everything we wanted right out of the gate. Now it's about slight iteration and incremental upgrades as we re-industrialize production. Beyond the AR-15 platform, we have plans for a large frame offering and some other projects that are wildly off the reservation, but we're going to let demand signals from our customers drive what comes to market first.
Pricing will depend on the specific model and configuration. The biggest variables will be barrel type and trigger selection—everything else stays relatively consistent. We're working to find economies of scale while maintaining our commitment to providing more rifle for the money than people expect. We'll have more custom options available through our selected channels as we roll out the full product line.
If you want to stay current on Hartmann Defense news and product releases, visit hartmanndefense.com and sign up for our newsletter. We'll be sharing updates on availability, new models, and ordering information there first.
Looking Ahead: The Next 12-24 Months
So what can you expect from the Ridgeline Group over the next year or two? Expanded training access across two world-class facilities. Clear, focused product offerings from each brand. Improved lead times as we bring manufacturing in-house and a more professional customer experience across the board.
What excites us most is that we're finally building the company we envisioned years ago: sustainable, disciplined, and bigger than any one person. We're focused on the client and meeting them wherever they are in their journey—whether that's their first precision rifle class, a government contract, or ongoing training and equipment needs.
If we had to summarize 2026 in one sentence: this is the year we execute at scale while maintaining operational excellence and the tactical edge that defines us.
There's a spectrum in this industry between very corporate offerings on one end and very rough-around-the-edges offerings on the other. We've always strived to be somewhere in the middle, taking the best from both.
A Message to Our Customers
To our longtime customers who have supported us through all this growth: thank you for trusting us early on. Everything we're doing now is to honor that trust for the next decade and beyond.
We know the past year has been quieter than usual from a communications standpoint. That wasn't by accident—it was necessary. You can't add more to your plate when you're in the middle of acquiring facilities, integrating operations, and fundamentally restructuring how your company works. Like a duck on a pond, we looked calm on the surface, but underneath we were kicking faster than hell.
2025 was about absorption—getting systems set up, getting teams in place, and building the infrastructure to support what comes next. Now we're ready to slowly open the valve back up.
We're not here to build hype. We're here for the long haul, focused on continuity, capability, and accountability. We're here to serve serious end users who value those same things.
And we're more excited than ever about what's ahead.
Welcome to 2026. Welcome to the next chapter of Ridgeline.