The 155 mm Howitzer

Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth recently made a tour of a new General Dynamics plant under construction in Mesquite, Texas. The $1 billion facility will be one link in a supply chain created to fill part of a void in military expendables needed by the US and Ukraine, in this case 155mm artillery shells. Ukraine fires thousands of them daily from US made M-777 howitzers toward the Russians.

The US plans to triple production of the shells to 100,000 monthly by the end of 2025. The completed casings will be shipped to places like Camden, AR, to be filled with propellant and then Army warehouses or Ukraine. The equipment in the plant is supplied by a Turkish firm and the robotics by a Chinese-owned German company.

In the case of 155mm howitzer shells, their place in the US defense picture is unclear. It seems unlikely that these weapons would actually be used in a military defense of the US mainland itself. A physical invasion of the country would be the only opportunity for their deployment. It's often said the military is always preparing to fight the previous war and in this case that seems to be true. 

Does anyone really expect that divisions of Russian or Chinese infantry and artillery will somehow arrive in the US with the equipment and munitions to subdue the country? It's possible that some future enemy could fire on the US from submersibles, aircraft or even space-based weapons but in a future kinetic war howitzers would be useless in defense. In fact, future battles are more likely to be fought on a digital battlefield, like the recent cyber-extortion of automobile sales software in the US.

The reality is that these and other weapons are needed, or thought to be, in various smaller conflicts across the globe in which the US has a perceived interest. No howitzers will be based in Tennessee or Arizona or North Dakota.

An interesting aspect of this situation is Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth herself. Particularly concerned with the role of the military in climate change, she has this to say:

  “The Army must adapt across our entire enterprise and purposefully pursue greenhouse gas mitigation strategies to reduce climate risks. If we do not take action across, across our installations, acquisition and logistics and training, our option to mitigate these risks will become more constrained with each passing year.”

No information on the new General Dynamics munitions plant in Mesquite, TX, being powered solely by non-hydrocarbon energy. 

Some of this information from the Wall Street Journal