By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
Here’s how bad things got in Ukraine at one point.
Last month, the Washington Post reported, one artillery platoon in eastern Ukraine that used to fire 20 to 30 rounds a day from its howitzer was down to shooting one to two shells daily – a fraction of those fired at them by Russian forces.
Now, the Pentagon has a solution. Outside Dallas, the Pentagon is opening its first major arms factory since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility will produce 30,000 artillery shells per month, ranging from 155mm howitzer shells to mortar shells. Added to current production, that will allow the Defense Department to reach its goal of 100,000 shells per month – almost ten times more than were being produced just a few years ago.
General Dynamics built the plant in about ten months with help from a Turkish defense company, Repkon.
“We are building new production lines across the country and we are expanding our contracts with existing production facilities to increase their production speed and capacity,” said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. “And we couldn’t increase our production rates without the skilled expertise of the Americans who work in these arsenals and facilities around the country.”
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The assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, Douglas Bush, told the New York Times, “When government and industry work together and Congress gives us sufficient latitude, we can still do great things in this country really fast.”
The new plant in Mesquite, Texas is equipped with long-stroke, high-tonnage forging capabilities which will allow it to make shells much faster than factories in Pennsylvania that also make them. According to the Times, laser scanners are used instead of human inspectors to ensure the shells are made properly.
“This plant is an important example of how we are modernizing our World War II-era organic industrial base,” Wormuth said at the opening ceremony for plant May 29.
The shells in the new factory have one thing in common with those built elsewhere – they’re empty. Once they are made, the shells are sent to a factory in Burlington, Iowa – the Army’s only facility for filling them with explosives.
But by next year, General Dynamics will have a new plant open to do that job in Camden, Ark.
