US spent $469M on shell factory that has yet to produce a single round

A US artillery shell factory built at a cost of $469 million has failed to produce a single 155mm round more than two years after its completion, according to a new government report.

CBS News and the New York Post reported Tuesday, citing a Defense Department inspector general report, that a shell factory opened by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems in Texas in May 2024 had not produced any of the contracted components.

The facility was built as part of a government contract to replenish ammunition stocks sent to Ukraine. The US military had set a goal of ramping up 155mm shell production to 100,000 rounds per month by October 2025, with the factory designated as a key facility in that effort.

Instead, the plant failed to produce a single one of the 30,000 components it was contracted to manufacture each month from May 2024 through March 2026.

The inspector general's office warned in the report that with only three facilities capable of producing the necessary components, the Defense Department would fall short of its monthly production target, reaching just 71,000 rounds — 71 percent of the 100,000-round goal.

US artillery stockpiles are already significantly depleted. The United States has expended 3.6 million 155mm shells over the past four years, most of them transferred to Ukraine following Russia's 2022 invasion, according to the New York Post.

Concerns over weapons inventories are deepening as the US finds itself entangled in multiple conflicts at once. The United States is engaged in hostilities with Iran, Israel is fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the war in Ukraine is now in its fourth year. All three conflicts require American-made ammunition.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in an April report that the US may have consumed more than half of its pre-war stockpiles in the Middle East. Inventories of Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot and THAAD interceptor missiles are also declining, the think tank found. CSIS warned that restocking could take one to four years.