Pentagon Opens Ammunition Factory to Keep Arms Flowing to Ukraine

In a warehouse off Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway in an industrial area outside Dallas, the future of American military ammunition production is coming online.

Here, in the Pentagon’s first new major arms plant built since Russia invaded Ukraine, Turkish workers in orange hard hats are busy unpacking wood crates stenciled with the name Repkon, a defense company based in Istanbul, and assembling computer-controlled robots and lathes.

The factory will soon turn out about 30,000 steel shells every month for the 155-millimeter howitzers that have become crucial to Kyiv’s war effort.

. . .

To keep Ukraine’s artillery crews supplied, the Pentagon set a production target last year of 100,000 shells per month by the end of 2025. Factories in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., together make about 36,000 shells per month. The new General Dynamics facility in Mesquite, Texas, will make 30,000 each month once it reaches its full capacity.

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applepie,

DoD operates industrial facilities?

EDIT: private corporation operates this facility

Good news for Ukraine and their war affort!!!!

Dropping this as Israel is persecuting an ethnic displacement campaign is timed tho

and no daddy biden this does not make whatever is happening in Palestine right or proper.

Zorsith,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

There are entire agencies under DoD for industrial purposes. Defense logistics Agency (DLA) is a big one off the top of my head.

…defense.gov/…/Military-Departments-and-Defense-A…

applepie,

do they operate actual commercial or industrial facilities or do they just dish out taxpayer money to the connected parasites to middle man the job?

asking for a friend.

Zorsith, (edited )
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Good question tbh. Large scale work tends to be done by contractors in a lot of places due to ridiculous hiring processes for federal employment (by the time people get a federal job offer they’ve already accepted a job elsewhere and have been working there for months)

It’s easier to hire from the pool of umpteen-tens-of-thousands of people getting out of the military that still have clearance (if needed) for contractor jobs.

Siegfried, (edited )

They accidentally end up in IDF’s hands

credo,

Ukraine’s effort heavily relies on artillery, which accounts for a substantial portion of battlefield casualties. Ukrainian forces require around 75,000 artillery shells per month just to hold their current positions, and potentially double that amount for offensive operations. In contrast, Russia is capable of firing approximately 300,000 shells monthly, supported by both domestic production and imports from North Korea.

Interestingly, South Korea has also become a key player in supplying artillery ammo, agreeing to transfer 300,000 155mm shells to the U.S., which in turn helped replenish stocks sent to Ukraine in 2023.

Can South Korean 105-Millimeter Ammunition Rescue Ukraine?.

How weapons from Western allies are strengthening Ukraine’s defence against Russia.

sepi,

How's the crap nork arty ammo doing?

maynarkh,

Adequately for the crappy old Soviet artillery the Russians have.

brbposting,

But isn’t it unethical to import weapons from North Korea? 🙃

Pistcow,

Fudge, I’m never getting large rifle primers again…

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Google Shopping indexes pretty much everything where people sell something online. I bet that someone has them.

searches

These guys have an indexed entry.

bobcatarmament.com/ginex-large-rifle-primers-nick…

5000ct/$670.19/Excl. tax/In stock

EDIT: These guys appear to have lower prices:

republicammunition.com/…/rifle-primers/

Pistcow,

Huh, neat

BombOmOm,

The factory will soon turn out about 30,000 steel shells every month for the 155-millimeter howitzers

Love it. Ukraine needs the artillery shells, and that is one place the US and Europe are vastly short on production.

lettruthout,

Workers assembling computer-driven robots and flow-forming machines at a new General Dynamics artillery ammunition factory in Mesquite…

…and…

Here, in the Pentagon’s first new major arms plant built since Russia invaded Ukraine…

So the NYT doesn’t even try to pretend that General Dynamics and the Pentagon are not the same entity.

nahuse,

I don’t think anybody ever really withheld information about how defense contracting works. It’s not a NYT thing.

It’s a big part of the way the current US Presidential administration has been talking about the Ukraine arms funding: that it will mostly be spent here, manufacturing things for war.

Edit: changed one word.

skillissuer,
@skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

can’t see article bc paywall, but most likely it’s GOCO facility - government owned, contractor operated baesystems.com/…/government-owned--contractor-ope…

breakfastmtn,
@breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca avatar

There’s an archive link at the bottom of the post.

skillissuer,
@skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

oops i can’t read, looked it up looks like it’s the case

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t know who operates it, but I do recall reading that the older artillery shell manufacturing facility at Scranton is also owned by the government.

skillissuer,
@skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Scranton is General Dynamics stuff

applepie,

Thank you for your service!

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