Friday, November 15, 2024

Goes Boom!

Here’s some tidbits of good news about restoring our industrial ‘boom’ capacity.
 
How much TNT explosive does the United States produce?  None. 
TNT is used to produce an array of explosive weapons including ammunition, bombs and 155-millimeter artillery rounds, but the military has been reliant on overseas sources.[1]
In a bit of good news, the Army is going to resume TNT production by building a new facility. 
As part of the Army’s quest to boost weapons production, it is reestablishing TNT production on US soil, inking a deal to build out a new facility in Graham, Ky.
 
“For the first time in decades, America will produce TNT on its own soil, manufacturing the explosive material our military uses for everything from hand grenades to 155mm artillery,” outgoing Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a press release.[1]
Boom!


As Army acquisition head Douglas Bush notes, control over our own explosives supply chain is vital. 
“[Restoring] TNT production gives us the ability to control and secure our supply chain for this vital component, especially in an era of increasing global challenges.”[1]
How could we ever have allowed such a vital industrial capability to vanish from our shores?  The military and civilian leadership that allowed this were derelict in their duty, if not treasonous for knowingly and willfully endangering America’s national security.  The military leadership should be recalled to active duty and court-martialed.
 
Setting that aside, the good news gets better … 
By fiscal 2026, the service is aiming to have the capacity to produce 100,000 rounds each month. To get there, Bush previously said the Army plans to spend $4.2 billion to build up the industrial base across various initiatives, to include commissioning three new domestic facilities to support 155mm production and a new metal parts production facility in Canada.[1]
Admittedly, I’m praising something that should never have been necessary and that's sad.  A country/military that doesn’t have its own explosives production capability is a fool and that’s exactly what we’ve been.  Still, it’s refreshing to see us begin to restore what we lost. 
 
I love being able to present positive posts.  It’s a shame that there are so few opportunities to do so, so enjoy this one!
 
 
 
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[1]Breaking Defense, “Army inks $435 million deal for new TNT production facility”, Ashley Roque, 11-Nov-2024,
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/11/army-inks-435-million-deal-for-new-tnt-production-facility/
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3 comments:

  1. Austin VernonNovember 15, 2024 at 11:02 AM

    It is kind of embarrassing how cheap it is to increase production capacity of munitions. That $4.2 billion is getting us big increases in capacity to produce artillery shells, Stinger missiles, Javelin missiles, Patriot interceptors, and MLRS rounds. We should have sent cruise missiles to Ukraine so they get capacity upgrades, too.

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    1. ComNavOpsNovember 15, 2024 at 11:12 AM

      "big increases in capacity to produce artillery shells, ... missiles"

      We need to be very careful that we don't confuse explosive and 'dumb' shells with advanced electronic-containing missiles. One of the major vulnerabilities in our missile (and other electronics) manufacturing is our near total absence of rare earth (and other critical resources) mining and refining capacity (currently obtained largely from China, if you can believe that) which is critical for producing the chips/electronics that go into missiles, radars, and so much more. We can somewhat quickly gear up explosive production but gearing up the electronic components for advanced sensors and weaponry is a much more challenging proposition.

      We've made recent, tentative steps towards improving our rare earth capacity but many other critical resources are still lacking and vulnerable in a war with China.

      We should have a completely self-contained war manufacturing capability and we're nowhere near that. This TNT effort is a nice step but it's a tiny, baby step toward the completely self-contained goal.

      In his first term, Trump had recognized this resourde vulnerability and begun the process of making us independent from foreign supply. Perhaps he can move us further along that path in his 2nd term.

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  2. Big BillNovember 15, 2024 at 11:51 AM

    Before WWII, we really didn't have a civilian "Defense Industry" during peacetime. We had Armories to create weapons & equipment, Arsenals to produce ammunition and various other consumables, and Shipyards to build & maintain Naval vessels & weapon systems. These institutions were Federally owned and were first instituted by Alexander Hamilton. It was a system which served the country until the Truman Administration.

    It was only during wartime that we dragooned private industry into producing war material. This process was SUPPOSED to be planned and coordinated by the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (now the Eisenhower School). Both peacetime maintenance of the armories and ensuring their scalability for wartime production levels, were to be constantly kept adequate to any requirements, for the various war plans, created by the Naval War College and the Army War College.

    From almost the founding, Col. Thayer designed West Point, not to be an Officer training college per se, but a DARPA-like polytechnical academy to conduct research & development of new military technology & to train engineers. During peacetime, these engineers would be improving the nation's infrastructure and assisting industry to become more modern. All of it to strengthen our defensive capabilities. The Naval Academy was originally conceived upon similar lines as well.

    The maintenance of a civilian defense industry during peacetime started innocently enough after WWII with the aircraft manufacturers and has since spread to include almost all military production. Just ten years later, it was already getting so far out of hand that President Eisenhower felt he had to warn people about it in his Farewell Address. Sadly, the situation kept getting worse throughout Vietnam. But after Adm. Rickover was finally fired, the corruption was allowed to become endemic and has grown exponentially ever since.

    We still have the means to go back to a system our Founders and our greatest Generals & Admirals created. We just lack the will. Food for thought.

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