The war in Ukraine and America's military support for the Ukrainian defense against Russia's invasion demonstrated to the military and policymakers that America's defense industrial base was lacking in key areas, one of them being the production of artillery shells.
Funded by Congress last year, the department of the Army began ramping up shell production with a goal of producing 100,000 shells per month.
On May 29, the Army inaugurated the opening of the Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility which is a new modular metal parts facility in Mesquite, Texas.
The facility has the flexibility to produce shells ranging from 60mm to 155mm with minimal swapping out of parts. The new plant also includes significant levels of automation, intended to modernize the shell production process.
"This plant is an important example of how we are modernizing our World War II-era organic industrial base. The Army is spending more than a billion dollars every year to make these critical improvements," explained Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth in a press release.
"We are building new production lines across the country, and we are expanding our contracts with existing production facilities to increase their production speed and capacity. And we couldn’t increase our production rates without the skilled expertise of the Americans who work in these arsenals and facilities around the country," Wormuth said.
The facility is owned and operated by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, but the Army will assume ownership of the plant and then re-lease it to General Dynamics through a government-furnished material agreement.