Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year, starting in fiscal 2025 (1 Viewer)

[Rogue Valley]

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year, starting in fiscal 2025

New manufacturing techniques helping U.S. ramp up production of critical munition need.

www.defenseone.com

8.7.23
New manufacturing techniques are moving the Army toward its goal of producing 85,000 155mm artillery shells per month, starting in fiscal 2025, the assistant Army secretary for acquisition said Monday. The push is meant to help Ukraine keep up the pace of its counteroffensive and to replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles and even help other countries build up their own supplies after the Ukraine war highlighted the importance of the munition in large-scale conflict. “Between supporting Ukraine, replenishing ourselves and supporting other countries, allies, we expect to use that capacity. That's the overall reason we're doing it,” Doug Bush told reporters. “You do the math on the [roughly] 80,000-a-month. I mean, that's a million a year,” he said. The United States isn’t the only country working to supply Ukraine with 155mm shells. But as Ukraine battles a much larger force, one now dug in behind heavily fortified lines of defense in the country’s east, its artillery units are burning through the munition faster than it is being replaced. Ukrainian gunners are also wearing out the firing tubes on their howitzers at a rate never before seen, which has forced the United States to send cluster munitions as a “bridging capability,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in July. Bush said new computer-assisted manufacturing techniques are helping to reduce complexity and time in manufacturing the new shells. For instance, shell production in the past required workers to heat metal and then just bang it on it to fold it into the proper shape. New techniques use rotary machines to produce casings faster with less energy and heat.

Artillery shells are less complicated than many weapons developed for or consumed in the conflict, but the United States and other allies have struggled to increase production capacity. The challenges start with creating new lines to make the munitions’ metal components, Bush said. “Then you also have to be investing in additional—what's referred to as load assemble pack capacity, which is filling the shells with explosives so they now become functional weapons. That capacity expansion is also underway at at least two locations. And then the final piece is bringing in additional production, either overseas or domestically, for the charges that go behind the shell...for the propellant that actually shoots that out of the cannon. Those require additional production of the explosives that goes in those propellant materials, called triple base propellant. So all of those things do have to come together…I think we're getting the resources, getting on contract and just working really closely every day with our industry partners to help them knock down barriers to get there,” he said. The United States will also be increasing production of more sophisticated munitions that have proven their worth on Ukrainian battlefields. Among them is the Army’s month-old LASSO, for Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, which are drones that loiter in the air and crash into their target once detected.

Ukraine is firing 4,000-7,000 155mm artillery shells a day. Russia is firing a staggering 24,000 artillery shells per day.

The West needs to up its game in this regard, and quickly.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year, starting in fiscal 2025

New manufacturing techniques helping U.S. ramp up production of critical munition need.

www.defenseone.com

Ukraine is firing 4,000-7,000 155mm artillery shells a day. Russia is firing a staggering 24,000 artillery shells per day.

The West needs to up its game in this regard, and quickly.

The math doesn’t make sense. If Ukraine is firing 4K to 7K (say 5,500) 155mm shells/day (and the US military is firing none) then Ukraine (alone) is firing $165K 155mm shells/month.

 

[Rogue Valley]

The math doesn’t make sense. If Ukraine is firing 4K to 7K (say 5,500) 155mm shells/day (and the US military is firing none) then Ukraine (alone) is firing $165K 155mm shells/month.

The fate of Ukraine's spring offensive could rest on this 'highly lethal' artillery round

Ukraine is pleading for more 155mm howitzer rounds to help fight Russia as the conflict between the two countries continues. But why is this artillery shell so important?

www.abc.net.au

 

[Port & Starboard]

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year, starting in fiscal 2025

New manufacturing techniques helping U.S. ramp up production of critical munition need.

www.defenseone.com

Ukraine is firing 4,000-7,000 155mm artillery shells a day. Russia is firing a staggering 24,000 artillery shells per day.

The West needs to up its game in this regard, and quickly.

The Army doesn't make artillery shells.

Try again.

 

[medi]

Something else doesn't seem to be quite right --- since when did the U.S. Army start manufacturing artillery shells? I thought that was contracted out to some commercial entity. Has that changed?

EDIT: Old folks type too slowly. Got beat by a minute or so, but I'll let my post remain.

 

[ttwtt78640]

The fate of Ukraine's spring offensive could rest on this 'highly lethal' artillery round

Ukraine is pleading for more 155mm howitzer rounds to help fight Russia as the conflict between the two countries continues. But why is this artillery shell so important?

www.abc.net.au

OK, but those numbers are higher than in your OP.

In Ukraine, 155mm rounds are being fired at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 a day, Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova said recently.

However, she said Russian forces were firing an estimated 40,000 152mm shells per day.

If the US produces 85K 155mm shells per month that’s what is used by Ukraine (alone) about every two weeks (if they are firing 7K/day).

 

[medi]

My goodness, this thread is getting cute. What is the difference between a "highly lethal" round and a "regular lethal" round?

EDIT: Better mind my grammar --- regularly lethal round. That looks odd, though. But there are duds sometimes.

 

[Rogue Valley]

The Army doesn't make artillery shells. Try again.

Nor tanks, nor mortars, nor NVG's, nor yada yada yada. MIC vendors manufacture everything for the Pentagon.

It seems the obvious has to be explained to you.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Nor tanks, nor mortars, nor NVG's, nor yada yada yada. MIC vendors manufacture everything for the Pentagon.

It seems the obvious has to be explained to you.

Your OP still has some math problems.

 

[Port & Starboard]

Nor tanks, nor mortars, nor NVG's, nor yada yada yada. MIC vendors manufacture everything for the Pentagon.

It seems the obvious has to be explained to you.

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year​

Try again.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year​

Try again.

If Ukraine is firing 7K 155mm shells/day that’s firing over 2.5M 155mm shells/year.

 

[Rogue Valley]

OK, but those numbers are higher than in your OP.

I didn't author the OP. Nor the followup article. No one seems to know how many for certain and Ukraine isn't telling.

If the US produces 85K 155mm shells per month that’s what is used by Ukraine (alone) about every two weeks (if they are firing 7K/day).

Other nations are also sending Ukraine 155mm shells.

As the spokesperson states, by 2025 the US MIC will be manufacturing 1 million 155mm shells per year. I still don't think that is enough.

Less shells would be needed in Ukraine if Biden had said yes to tanks/jets/ATACMS last summer.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Army aims to make 1 million artillery shells a year​

Try again.

I didn't write the article nor title it. I suggest you take your crayons and complain to Patrick Tucker.

Derp.

 

[ttwtt78640]

I didn't author the OP. Nor the followup article. No one seems to know how many for certain and Ukraine isn't telling.



Other nations are also sending Ukraine 155mm shells.

As the spokesperson states, by 2025 the US MIC will be manufacturing 1 million 155mm shells per year. I still don't think that is enough.

Less shells would be needed in Ukraine if Biden had said yes to tanks/jets/ATACMS last summer.

I realize that those numbers were simply guesstimates and/or goals, but the US can’t give away (donate?) 100% of the 155mm shells that it produces to Ukraine or anyone else.

 

[Rogue Valley]

I realize that those numbers were simply guesstimates and/or goals, but the US can’t give away (donate?) 100% of the 155mm shells that it produces to Ukraine or anyone else.

Perhaps you missed this sentence.....

The push is meant to help Ukraine keep up the pace of its counteroffensive and to replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles and even help other countries build up their own supplies after the Ukraine war highlighted the importance of the munition in large-scale conflict.

The US goal seems to be tripartite.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Perhaps you missed this sentence.....



The US goal seems to be tripartite.

OK, but that’s like saying that you can spend the same $1 on multiple things.

 

[Rogue Valley]

OK, but that’s like saying that you can spend the same $1 on multiple things.

The article did not discuss funding. Only sought after capabiities.

 

[GClevelandFan]

How fascinating, how the increased production of the weapons of war is taken to be progress. I certainly could have sworn that a broken window is a net loss for society, by directing the economy to destructive capacity rather than productive capacity. Say what you will, that Ukraine needs the shells, but it is a simple fact that this is an opportunity cost.

 

[Oozlefinch]

Ukraine is firing 4,000-7,000 155mm artillery shells a day. Russia is firing a staggering 24,000 artillery shells per day.

The West needs to up its game in this regard, and quickly.

Not sure what the thread or even the title are even trying to say.

The "Army" does not make artillery shells. So this entire thread is largely nonsensical.

 

[EMNofSeattle]

I didn't author the OP. Nor the followup article. No one seems to know how many for certain and Ukraine isn't telling.



Other nations are also sending Ukraine 155mm shells.

As the spokesperson states, by 2025 the US MIC will be manufacturing 1 million 155mm shells per year. I still don't think that is enough.

Less shells would be needed in Ukraine if Biden had said yes to tanks/jets/ATACMS last summer.

Also less shells would be needed if you cut bait on the Ukranian cause and just didn’t care if Russia reannexed them

 

[Tangmo]

If Ukraine is firing 7K 155mm shells/day that’s firing over 2.5M 155mm shells/year.

The US Army itself has supplied Ukraine with more than 2m artillery munitions since the barbarian Putin invaded.

The Army’s Organic Industrial Base —23 arsenals, depots, and ammunition plants that manufacture, reset, and maintain Army equipment—provides critical materiel and sustainment support to warfighters across the joint force. In recent years the Army has spent $5bn upgrading and expanding many of its 149 weapons and munitions production facilities.



In artillery production the Army awards contracts to private companies for the shell that is the most demanding aspect of the artillery munition. This includes both metal shell body production as well as fuzzes, explosive fill and charges. The Army itself does the loading, assembly and packing process at its Iowa Ammunition Plant commanded by a colonel.

McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma supplies one third of munitions for the Defense Department and is considered the premier bomb and warhead loading facility, delivering thousands of Mark 84 2,000 pound bombs, M11 artillery rounds and 105mm artillery rounds among other artillery explosives.

But McAlester is just one of several vital ammunition plants and depots that are the DoD’s Organic Industrial Base (OIB). Military officers education and training programs include courses in the Pentagon's military industrial base to keep after Congress about it. The Army used to have its Army Industrial College (1924), now known as the Eisenhower School of National Security and Resource Strategy, at the National Defense University, Ft. Leslie J. McNair in Washington DC.

The Eisenhower School of Resource Strategy, National Defense University, Ft. McNair HQ of the Military District of Washington DC. The dome in the center of the greenery in the upper center-left is the Jefferson Memorial at the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River. Ft. Myer is immediately across the Potomac from Memorial Bridge, upper left, as is the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Statue). After the Army I lived two blocks over from the right in a co-op and used to go jogging inside Ft. McNair where I met a lot of, ahem, interesting people some of whom I got to know pretty well.


The huge Watervliet Army Arsenal in upstate NY commanded by a colonel produces artillery cannons, mortars and tanks. It's being retooled in part to produce an even more durable artillery tube for howitzers. It also makes barrels for the Abrams M-60 main battle tank.

Army Material Command headed by a 4-star operates depots, arsenals, ammunition plants among other facilities. The AMC Motto is "If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, communicates with it or eats it – AMC provides it." AMC has 70,000 employees military and civilian in 149 locations in the US & Canada.

This upgrade and expansion program of munitions production for Ukraine is occurring at Army arsenal facilities in the US, Canada, Poland, and new facilities in India.

 

[PirateMk1]

The Army doesn't make artillery shells.

Try again.

Actually the Military does in tandem with contractors usually on government facilities.

 

[Oozlefinch]

Actually the Military does in tandem with contractors usually on government facilities.

Hmmm, kinda.

The largest in the US is the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, in Pennsylvania. It is owned by the government, but other than providing the land and security as well as QAQC it is run largely independently by General Dynamics. And they do not only manufacture for the US Army, but also many other nations buy their ordinance from them.

And "contractors" is not quite correct, as General Dynamics has been running the plant since 1963 and I can't imagine them losing that contract any time soon. And it is not only used for the Army, they also make all the 5" shells for the Navy there as well as some for the Air Force.

And there are others, as the Holston Plant in Tennessee where BAE makes chemical explosives. The Iowa plant is run by American Ordinance and makes warheads for the Sidewinder, Javelin, Stinger, and other missiles in addition to tank and mortar rounds.

But since WWII, all of our ordinance is made in government owned plants primarily for security purposes. The military and government actually has little to do with them other than providing QAQC and security. That decision was made when it became obvious the US was going to have to enter WWII, in order to prevent a repeat of the "Black Tom Incident" of 1916. Where German agents infiltrated and blew up a lightly guarded munitions plant and storage depot in New York Harbor. When Lend-Lease started, the government decided to centralize all such facilities on land they controlled and would provide security for in order to prevent that from happening again. And it is still done that way over 80 years later for the same reason. But they are almost entirely "hands off" of the process itself.

But the military really does not "make" the ordinance. Not unlike the Lima Army Tank Plant in Ohio. The Army owns the plant and provides QAQC and security, but General Dynamics has been running it since 1982 when they bought the tank production and support division from Chrysler. And Chrysler only got it in 1976 when they won the M1 contract and replaced GM which had been there since it opened in 1942. And ironically, most are unaware that the Lima plant has not actually "made" a new tank for over 31 years. They still work there, but there are enough hulls that they are just rebuilding older tanks now, and will likely continue to do so for decades to come. Even the "next generation AbramsX" will not be a "new tank", but entire new guts and turret built into existing M1 hulls.