Once the shells are finished in Scranton, they are shipped to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, where they are packed with explosives, fitted with fuses and packaged for final delivery. is also looking overseas to allies to expand production, Bush said. The Army has new contracts with plants in Texas and Canada to make 155 mm shells, said Douglas Bush, an assistant Army secretary and its chief weapons buyer. Meanwhile, the Army is expanding supply chains for parts - metal shells, explosive fill, charges that shoot the shell and fuses - and buying the massive machines that do the work. “There’s a lot going on,” said Richard Hansen, the Army commander’s representative at the plant. The rounds, used in howitzer systems, are critical to Ukraine’s fight because they allow the Ukrainians to hit Russian targets up to 20 miles (32 kilometers) away with a highly explosive munition. The 155 mm shell is one of the most often-requested and supplied items, which also include air defense systems, long-range missiles and tanks. has provided more than $35 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. “That’s what Russia wants to know,” said Justine Barati of the U.S. There are some things that Army and plant officials in Scranton won’t reveal, including where they get the steel for the shells and exactly how many more rounds this factory can produce. It may not be easy to adapt: practically every square foot of the Scranton plant’s red brick factory buildings - first constructed more than a century ago as a locomotive repair depot - is in use as the Army clears space, expands production to private factories and assembles new supply chains. military planners, and the Army now plans to spend billions on munitions plants around the country in what it calls its most significant transformation in 40 years. stockpile of 155 mm shells and those of European allies were unprepared to support a major and ongoing conventional land war, sending them scrambling to bolster production. The invasion of Ukraine revealed that the U.S. is rushing to Ukraine to help in its grinding fight to repel the Russian invasion in the largest-scale war in Europe since World War II. that make the steel bodies for the critical 155 mm howitzer rounds that the U.S.

The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is at the vanguard of a multibillion-dollar Pentagon plan to modernize and accelerate its production of ammunition and equipment not only to support Ukraine, but to be ready for a potential conflict with China.īut it is one of just two sites in the U.S. (AP) - One of the most important munitions of the Ukraine war comes from a historic factory in this city built by coal barons, where tons of steel rods are brought in by train to be forged into the artillery shells Kyiv can’t get enough of - and that the U.S.

The long story andrea levy