The U.S. Army has nearly tripled its production of 155mm howitzer shells since the Ukraine war began, millions of which have been sent to that country’s front lines. It’s going to miss its goal of making 100,000 per month by October, but likely by just a few months.
The service’s current monthly output stands at 40,000, up from 14,500 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than three years ago, according to data provided by the Army. The original plan called for making about twice as many by now.
“Several of the investments that we made are just coming online now, a little later than we had hoped, but these were big bets, and we were given the mission to go fast,” Maj. Gen. John Reim, head of the joint armaments and ammunitions program executive office, told
Defense One. “We put multiple bets down, and realized some risk…but we will continue to work through that.”
In February 2024, the Army
announced that it aimed to produce 60,000 shells per month that October, 75,000 in April 2025, and 100,000 by this October.
So far the service has funneled nearly $5 billion into the project, mostly through supplemental funding, upgrading existing plants as well as opening new ones. Reim himself has attended seven ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings.
“You know, I tell folks all the time that we're literally making history, and that we've not seen this level of investment in our industrial base since World War II,” he said.
The investment could be a model for the other services, like the Navy, whose leaders and
advocates in Congress have said time and again
desperately needs investment in its shipbuilding industrial base.
https://www.defenseone.com/defense-...re-million-artillery-shells-next-year/406132/
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