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The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant occupies a 15-acre campus in northeast Pennsylvania—a 115-year-old building that once assembled steam locomotives. Today it manufactures 155-millimeter artillery shells, the backbone of modern NATO artillery systems.
General Dynamics operates this Army-owned facility under contract through 2029. The plant runs 24 hours a day, five days a week with approximately 300 employees—many military veterans. Current production commitment: 11,040 shells per month, with recent Pentagon announcements targeting 90,000+ monthly by 2024.
The manufacturing process is deliberately labor-intensive:
"The limiting factor in the production of 155s is steel parts. We operate at the speed of steel." — Brig. Gen. John Reim, Army Armaments & Ammunition Executive Officer
The 155mm shell itself hasn't changed much in decades—and for good reason. Fired from NATO self-propelled howitzers, the M795 model reaches over 22 kilometers (14 miles) and carries nearly 24 pounds of TNT. It's proven, reliable, and now in extreme demand.
With precision tolerances measured in millimeters and zero room for error, the Scranton plant operates under strict military specifications. A flaw of just a few millimeters renders a shell combat-useless.
The Ukraine war triggered a production surge unprecedented since Korea. General Dynamics is also building new production lines in Garland, Texas (mostly automated), while the Pentagon awarded a contract to Canadian firm IMT for additional shell body manufacturing in Ontario. Weekend and eventual seven-day-a-week operations are planned.
The plant remains a cornerstone of domestic armaments production—one of only six remaining U.S. facilities producing conventional artillery ammunition.
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