Inside an ammo factory racing to replenish dwindling US & Nato stocks

The US Army has asked that artillery shell production triple over the next two years.

It comes as Nato's chief says the West is now in a "logistics race" with Russia to see who can produce weapons quicker.

One manufacturer, General Dynamics, has allowed a rare glimpse behind the scenes at one of its factories, Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, as it works flat out to meet demand.

#forcesnews #usarmy #generaldynamics #nato

[thetiptoeterror]

Damn, this must be why my order of 155mm shells has gotten so delayed... 🤔

[JF-xqfr]

Old tech, but extremely effective. Being shelled even briefly by close hits in a bunker is a very scary experience. Being caught in the open as the shells box you in is terminal fright... Each one of these shells (M795) is just over 100 lbs/45kg in weight, filled with nearly 25 lbs/11 kg of high explosives, and have a 'kill radius' of 50m.

[metazare]

10 years ago I was in the army stationed at Fort Sill. I was in artillery and 155's was what we shot all the time. We were once told that we have such a massive stockpile of 155 rounds that we actually needed to start using them because some were getting so old that they couldn't be trusted to work properly in combat conditions. Yes it is old tech but it cheap (compared to alternatives) and effective. This sounds like we've depleted that stockpile, of which we were also told realistically would never be, because there was so much ammunition.

[willberry]

Arsenal of democracy. This war has shown us that having too much ammo is a far better option then too little.

[johnzajac]

We once handled a small piece of shrapnel from an exploded, 105mm howitzer round. The shrapnel was about two inches wide and five inches long - and the edges were razor sharp.

[lostonearth]

Interesting how even back in the Medieval Ages, we've always tried to find ways to make the Artillery and Trenches obsolete but to this modern day, we've really never found a good way to make them obsolete, making them two of the few things that's never really changed that much throughout the centuries.

[EarthenDam]

Artillery factories on the world wars must have just been insanely large and numerous to supply the massive amounts of artillery used.

[diemaschine]

I was in the Army as a ammo specialist in the late 1990’s to 2008. I Was in a Field Artillery battery and was amazed at the age of all the munitions we used. They were using 105-155mm shells from Vietnam war era. Stuff from the early 70’s. There was very little modern ammunition in the bunkers. After the gulf war it was even worse.

[nevercertain]

Dunder-Mifflin really branched out with their product line

[AirplaneDoctor_]

Made in Scranton? I wonder if that's where cousin Moes works when he's not busy at Schrute farms....

[exMuteKid]

1:27 those shells look so beautiful for being a weapon of war. It literally looks like a giant rifle bullet (yes, I know that's because it's basically what it is but still) it's kinda amazing how humans can make stuff like this

[snowdogthewolf]

00:23 I really expected to see the head and arm of a Terminator T-800 series come into frame during that shot.

[KuruGDI]

Very interesting to see how these shells are build and how much they really cost.

[waynep]

I think of my girlfriends father. A US Marshal doing undercover work at a munitions plant during WWII brass ingots kept vanishing. Turned out there was a few parking spots in the employee lot the crane could reach. The crane operator dropped the ingots thru a trap door of an employees truck. I wonder how many years they got for theft of war materials.

[danielwhyatt]

Now we need to be doing the same thing over here in the UK. New ammunition orders in Europe don’t seem to have actually gone ahead, at least not until this month. Don’t know whether that includes the UK, but we still need actual physical evidence that we as well are actually increasing our ammunition manufacturing. At the very least, we need to be showing actual evidence that we are expanding the manufacturing base with real building and factory construction. So far we have seen none of this. We need to critically do this NOW.

[AcuraAddicted]

Nice to see that Dunder Mifflin finally adapted to the modern world.

[ChrisWMF]

Thanks. No one ever covers this kind of stuff. These are the kinds of answers that a lot of people need.

[Susanhartman.]

Buying a defense stock is easy, but buying the right defense stock without a time-tested strategy is incredibly hard. Hence what are the best stocks to buy now or put on a watchlist? I’ve been trying to grow my portfolio of $400K for sometime now, my major challenge is not knowing the best entry and exit strategies... I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

[Conservative_Indiana]

I grew up near Kingbury Indiana. A massive WW2 ammo park. All day every day you could hear the old bombs be detonated till the late 80's.

[QSL.]

High tech, doesn't work without simple hard steel!