Weapons of the Week #5: Progress on the 155mm Shell Shortage

There's a new factory in Texas, and it's owned by the US government. Plus: WWII plant finance; Boeing's rain of destruction; arming atrocity in Sudan; and more!

Mesquite smoke and firepower

The shortage of 155mm ammunition is one of the biggest military-industrial stories of the last several years, not to mention the main topic of WoW #2. Last week, the US took a step towards breaking this bottleneck, with the opening of a General Dynamics-operated plant in Mesquite, TX. The New York Times reported from the grand opening of the factory on a site which, ten months ago, was still “a dirt field.”

That’s pretty remarkable, though what the NYT describes sounds like a soft launch. Eventually, there will be “three production lines in different buildings.”¹ But for now, it’s not clear that any of the lines are operational: “Even as the first production line…was being completed…workers were already fitting out a second line.” The reporters say that the factory will reach full capacity output “soon,” then later that this means some unspecified time next year. Jen Judson, who covers land warfare for Defense News, sounded a somewhat skeptical note on Twitter:

Remember that 155m shell production facility that was going to open in Mesquite, Texas? It's been named the Mesquite Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility and I guess it’s open now although the press release said nothing about when it will actually start producing shells.

At one point, the Mesquite plant was supposed to “[come] online in early 2024,” so perhaps there was a bureaucratic incentive to get something open in the first half of the year. Or perhaps things will be really up and running within a few weeks.

Above: The Mesquite Universal Artillery Projectile Lines facility (Desiree Rios/NYT)