US Army Commits $1.5 Billion Towards Artillery Round Production
On 5 October, the US Army announced that over the last two weeks of September it had finalized a large number of contracts related to artillery shell production. The total costs of these contracts is $1.5 billion dollars and is set to bring the army closer to its goal of producing 80,000 155mm shells per month by the end of fiscal year 2025 and 100,000 shells by the end of fiscal year 2026. The contracts involve all components relevant to shell production “including the projectile or case, bulk energetics, propellant, primer and a fuze”.
According to the announcement:
“The awards procure 14.2 million pounds of bulk energetics (TNT and IMX-104), 270,000 primers, 678,000 fuses, 2.7 million Modular Artillery Charge System combustible cartridge cases, load assemble and pack of 1.6 million MACS propellant increments, and load assemble and pack of 451,000 M795/M1128 projectiles. In addition to awards for production, the Army awarded Industrial base production capacity increases for M795 LAP, MACS CCCs and MACS propellant.”
With the high consumption rates of artillery rounds in the war in Ukraine, increasing artillery shell production has become a massive priority for both the US and other allied militaries. While alarmists have highlighted the depletion of munition stocks throughout NATO countries, investments in the defense industrial base are already paying off. Since the beginning of 2023, the US has already doubled artillery shell production to around 28,000 rounds per month.
Multiple companies are involved in the latest round of contracts including BAE Ordnance Systems Inc. and Security Signals Inc. in Tennessee, Action Manufacturing Co. in Pennsylvania, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, and Day & Zimmerman in Arkansas, American Ordnance LLC in Iowa, and Armtec in California. Besides domestic companies, the army has awarded contracts to IMT Defence in Canada, Solar Industries India Ltd. in India, and NitroChem SA in Poland.