Inside the US arms factory churning out shells for Ukraine’s war effort | Dispatch

Just off the President Biden Expressway in Scranton, Pennsylvania - the town where Joe Biden was born - a military production effort not seen since the Korean War is underway. Inside a sprawling 500,000 sq ft brick former locomotive factory, giant robots toil around the clock, plucking newly forged 155mm artillery shells out of a 2,000-degree furnace. In the coming weeks and months, these shells will be fired from hundreds of howitzers toward Vladimir Putin’s forces during Kyiv’s spring counter-offensive. But Ukrainian forces are already burning through ammunition much faster than the US and Nato can make it, with troops fighting the Russians in Bakhmut among those facing shortages. At the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, the urgency with which America is surging production in an attempt to keep pace is palpable. The massive plant produces just over 11,000 155mm shells every month, the vast majority of the total US monthly production of 14,000. However, the Ukrainian Army is already using an average of 7,700 155mm shells each day, sparking fears that even the might of the US defence industry will not be enough to keep its guns from falling silent. In total, the US has already sent Kyiv over a million 155mm shells since the invasion on Feb 24, 2022, depleting its own stockpiles. The Pentagon is pumping $120 million (£96 million) into the Scranton plant as it aims to double America’s overall production of 155mm shells by the end of this year and increase it by 500 per cent in five years. On the humming factory floor, there is fire and forging going on everywhere. “That robot is going 24 hours a day,” Rich Hansen, who oversees operations, told The Telegraph, as a giant contraption with claws pulled a glowing red hot shell from the fire. “If you make a mistake at 2,000 degrees, that’s catastrophic,” he said. Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/customer/subscribe/digitalsub/3for1/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_pvid_conversion-subscription_editorial-iniative_03-22_EGW-13_organic_youtube Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture. #Ukraine #USA #Russia