America’s Munitions Crisis Is Real

Key Point and Summary – After decades of neglect left its stockpiles “far too shallow,” the United States is undertaking a massive revitalization of its munitions industrial base.

-Spurred by the demands of supporting allies like Ukraine and Israel, Congress is pouring billions into the effort.

-New, modern factories for 155mm artillery shells are opening for the first time since World War II, and domestic production of critical materials like TNT, which ended in 1986, is being re-established.

-This foundational effort, backed by a new Pentagon “munitions war room,” aims to restock America’s military arsenals for an era of great power competition.

America Is Building a New Ammo Plant for the First Time Since 1940

The United States Army’s ammunition boss told Congress he recently visited the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. He asked the team there, “When’s the last time we built anything new at Lake City?”

The answer: December 26th, 1940.

President Harry S. Truman’s library shows a photo of then-Senator Truman with his fedora and trench coat putting a shovel in the ground when the last new facility opened in Lake City.

Until now.

Rebuilding Production

Congress has been pouring money into the armed forces’ organic and defense industrial bases (the former is government-owned and the latter is contractor-led). Those investments are starting to pay off. And still more is to come , thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for defense.

As realization sinks in across the Defense Department that America’s military magazine depth is far too shallow, actions are underway to reverse course and increase the “health of the shelf” of the nation’s munitions production levels.

Army leaders told Congress they’ve “invested $4.9 billion to build new [munitions] production lines and add new capacity and resiliency to our supply chains across the country.”

In parallel, the Army is “expanding and modernizing existing facilities to increase speed, flexibility and capacity.” The goal is to implement “21st-century production capabilities that can generate the ammunition stockpiles necessary to sustain our national defense” during a long war.

The good news is that industry is responding.

As the US Army officially reached its goal of quadrupling production rates of 155 projectiles this past month, it has also sought to expand surge capacity by “moving shell production from a single facility to four separate facilities this year.”

Just a few weeks ago, a new fully automated 155mm artillery shell production factory called UNION Technologies opened outside of Dallas, Texas. This comes on the heels of another new load, assembly, and pack munitions facility that opened in Arkansas in April.

Also on the heels came a May ribbon-cutting at Crane Army Ammunition Activity in Indiana for a new explosive railcar holding yard. This was the “first time in many decades” the Army has done this, leaders told Congress. The expansion will double the output from this location after the Army found—no surprise—that inadequate rail holding space in times of heavy demand reduced readiness.

The Army has lacked new facilities and upgrades for munitions production, and it has also been deficient in abundant or novel energetics to power these explosives.

America last produced Trinitrotoluene (TNT) in the United States in 1986. After scrambling for new sources of foreign supply beyond Poland as the Ukraine war dragged on, the Army is at last set to “reacquire an in-country production capability for high explosive material” at a new site in Kentucky.

This follows recent approval of environmental permits to allow the Pentagon to reopen a mine in Idaho to make precursor material in all of our conventional ammunition using DPA Title III investment funds.

Also, thanks to recent new funding, the Radford Army ammunition plant is integrating advanced chemical processing capabilities into its manufacturing lines. This is the sole nitrocellulose and propellant manufacturing site in the US, built in, you guessed it: 1941.

Bombs Inside the B-52 Bomber. Photo taken by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.

Meanwhile, up at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, Army officials are helping produce “promising technologies such as next generation explosive fills, advanced initiation systems, and improved processing techniques that increase range survivability and lethality.” Key research and development programs are “applying emerging technologies from AI and robotics to additive manufacturing to unlock energy-driven weapon system performance.”

The American defense industrial base revitalization is just getting started. Managed decline that took place over decades, however, will take more funds and more time to reverse entirely.

The Pentagon recently stood up a new munitions war room, and there is plenty to do.

As Army leaders told Congress, it’s “better to buy now and use later than wait for a crisis and rely on intermittent investments to surge production and capability” for munitions rapidly. Alongside the newly-created but slow-to-stand-up joint energetics transition office, the munitions war room is working to “expedite the qualification, scale up, facilitization, and adoption of new technology for energetics components and long lead time items.”

The goal is to develop and scale production of new energetic materials for munitions critical to operations in the Indo-Pacific. After three years of building and purchasing at a wartime tempo to support Ukraine and Israel, Army leaders finally acknowledge that “sufficient capacity to surge and reconstitute munitions inventories must be treated as a core defense capability in the organic and commercial components of the industrial base.”

Congress agrees.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently allocated an additional $25.3 billion for munitions, missiles, counter-drone, and supply chain investments. As necessary, the bill establishes three munitions reserve programs to expand capacity. Specifically, the bill allocates $1 billion for the expansion and acceleration of qualification activities and technical data management to enhance competition in the defense industrial base, and an additional $500 million for the expansion of defense advanced manufacturing techniques in munitions.

Along the lines of our Civil Reserve Air Fleet model, Congress is seeking to establish what is essentially a manufacturing-ready reserve for munitions. This voluntary program partners Uncle Sam with private industry to agree ahead of time to provide resources in an emergency. In return, companies are given preferential treatment in moving troops and cargo during peacetime.

To reestablish a credible deterrent in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, revitalizing—and broadening—the defense industrial base is foundational to restocking the munitions shelves and regenerating credible American combat power.

About the Author: Mackenzie Eaglen

Mackenzie Eaglen, now a National Security Journal Contributing Editor,  is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness. She is also a regular guest lecturer at universities, a member of the board of advisers of the Alexander Hamilton Society, and a member of the steering committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. Ms. Eaglen is also one of the 12-member US Army War College Board of Visitors, which offers advice about academic program objectives and effectiveness, and serves on the US Army Science Board, an advisory body that provides guidance on scientific and other matters to the Army’s senior leadership. In 2023, she became a member of the Commission on the Future of the Navy, established by Congress to study the strategy, budget, and policy concerning the future strength of the US Navy fleet.

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