While headlines focus on military modernization, a section of the Big Beautiful Bill allocates billions to ammunition production. It’s only the latest sign that defense officials have woken up to the crisis in ammunition production and are pouring money into production lines to close the gap between what’s needed and what is currently available.
It’s a readiness problem that was made worse in some respects by our massive support of ammunition to Ukraine in the early days of the war and to Israel. The U.S. was the only NATO nation with the stocks on hand to help Ukraine withstand the initial blows from Russia.
The crisis, however, preceded Ukraine and has been part of a planned “managed decline” of military stocks that began in the early 2000s.
Now, with China becoming more aggressive and North Korea a wild card, replenishing ammunition stocks, especially of 155mm shells, becomes a critical necessity.
In congressional testimony, Army officials told Congress that they’ve “invested $4.9 billion to build new [munitions] production lines and add new capacity and resiliency to our supply chains across the country.” Also, the army is “expanding and modernizing existing facilities to increase speed, flexibility, and capacity.”
The end-goal is to create “21st-century production capabilities that can generate the ammunition stockpiles necessary to sustain our national defense” during a long war.
The Army reached its goal of quadrupling the production of 155mm shells this month by moving shell production to four separate sites. A new, fully automated 155mm artillery shell production factory called UNION Technologies opened in Texas a few weeks ago, and another new load, assembly, and pack factory opened in Arkansas last April.
In Indiana, a new explosive railcar holding yard is under construction, the first in decades.
Another deficiency related to the ammunition crisis is the lack of facilities and upgrades for munitions production. The U.S. has also failed to manufacture “abundant or novel energetics to power these explosives,” writes Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute.
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Author: Ruth King
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