Unprepared for long war, US Army under gun to make more ammo

A steel worker moves 155 mm M795 artillery projectiles at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant Thursday. Pic/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. can't produce fast enough.

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.

But it is one of just two sites in the U.S. that make the steel bodies for the critical 155 mm howitzer rounds 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.

The invasion of Ukraine revealed that the U.S. 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 dwindling supply has alarmed U.S. military planners, and the Army now plans to spend billions on munitions plants around the country.

"The 155 mm round and the similar Soviet-era 152 mm rounds are so popular because they provide a good balance between range and warhead size," said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "If you have too small a shell, it won't do enough damage and go as far. If you have a larger shell, you can't necessarily fire it as far. This is the most common middle ground, and that's why it's so widely used."

So far, the U.S. has provided more than $35 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. The 155 mm howitzer round is one of the most requested artillery munitions in Ukraine. The U.S. has shipped more than 1.5 million rounds to Ukraine, but Kyiv is still seeking more. Even with higher near-term production rates, the U.S. cannot replenish its stockpile or catch up to the usage pace in Ukraine, where officials estimate the Ukrainian military is firing 6,000 to 8,000 shells per day. In other words, two days' worth of shells fired by Ukraine equates to United States' monthly pre-war production figure.

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