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LIMA -- Despite rumors of a looming shutdown, the new U.S. defense budget plan will keep the nation’s only tank manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio running for the next two years.

According to the Associated Press, the plan includes $136 million for minimal production at the plant through 2014. The plant's 800 workers refurbish Abrams tanks with new weapons and sophisticated systems for the Army.

The Pentagon previously stated they would soon have enough tanks to postpone production until 2017. But Ohio Republicans said a shutdown would be more costly than continuing production since hundreds of jobs would need to be replenished to resume operations, according to the AP.

At its peak, the plant employed 3,800 workers and produced tanks everyday in the early 1980s.

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(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)