US Army document details plan to update WWII-era ammo plants and depots

CORRECTION - A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the method explosives like tritonal are mixed. Explosives are mixed in steam heated kettles.

McALESTER, Okla. — Many of the U.S. Army’s ammunition plants , arsenals and depots, mostly constructed in World War II, are time capsules of the era. The service has tried to update these wartime facilities, but there is much left to do to bring them into the 21st century.

McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma is dotted with shrub-cloaked ammunition bunkers built around 1943 and resembling Hobbit-holes . Old covered bridges that extend from external break rooms to manufacturing facilities across roads loom overhead but are now closed because of the presence of asbestos.

Since WWII, trains have carried in supplies and carted out ammunition in cargo containers. The Army has worked to update rail gauges and train cars to keep shipments moving on time, day and night.

Long, dark tunnels connect one facility for painting and prepping bomb shells to another where explosives are loaded into those rounds. A robotic arm spray-paints the outside of a shell in one facility.

But this automated capability isn’t available for the nuances of mixing explosives or filling shells, Brig. Gen. Gavin Gardner, commander of Joint Munitions Command, told Defense News on a tour of the ammunition plant’s production line for the Mark 82, a 500-pound bomb used by the Air Force. Operators still manually mix explosives — like tritonal, which is 80% TNT and 20% aluminum powder — using steam heated kettles, then adding it to the weapon mostly by hand.

Defense News accompanied Army Secretary Christine Wormuth on a trip to the plant last month.

A McAlester Army Ammunition Plant explosives handler monitors a state-of-the art paint robot applying paint to an MK82 general-purpose bomb body. (Photo courtesy of McAlester Army Ammunition Plant)

Parts of the facility that manufacture these bombs recently received upgrades, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, including the integration of brand-new machinery. The plant was tasked to mass manufacture hand sanitizer on the Mark 82 production line before the equipment was ever used to build weapons because it was clean and could be configured to do the job.

More upgrades are expected in 2023, including an Air Force-funded multipurpose loading facility that is partly unmanned and keeps the bombs underground encased in deep concrete when being loaded for blast protection.

McAlester supplies one-third of munitions for the Defense Department and is considered the premier bomb- and warhead-loading facility, delivering thousands of Mark 84 2,000-pound bombs, M11 artillery rounds and 105mm artillery rounds, to name a few.

But McAlester is just one of several critical ammunition plants and depots that make up the DoD’s organic industrial base — and modernization is needed across the board.

The Army’s organic industrial base is made up of 23 depots, arsenals and ammunition plants. And more than 19,000 facilities manufacture, rebuild, maintain or store equipment, supported by more than 32,000 skilled artisans and technicians.

Since 2009, the Army invested more than $5 billion to upgrade facilities, infrastructure, and operations equipment, but the service acknowledges a more focused investment plan is needed.

Congress has taken a particular interest in modernizing the organic industrial base over the last several years, having held hearings on the subject since at least 2020 and supplying the Pentagon with funding to bring aging facilities into the 21st century — making them safer and more efficient.

“ ‘Shocking’ is not overstating the condition of some of our facilities,” Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, said during a hearing last month. “The production progress, the tooling facilities are all operating much like they did during the Second World War.”

In the last two National Defense Authorization Acts, Norcross noted, Congress supported the Army’s baseline budget and its unfunded priorities to cover the cost of modernization plans.

“That was meant to kick-start the process of upgrading, modernization, and safe and efficient production of conventional ammunition,” he said. But he’s concerned the Army did not include adequate funding in its fiscal 2023 budget request to cover the costs of modernizing its industrial base facilities.

The service has a three-phase plan , which will require an estimated $16 billion investment , with more than $8 billion to upgrade ammunition sites, Gen. Edward Daly, who leads Army Materiel Command, told the subcommittee.

Pictured here are Crane Navy employees working on a munitions production line in 1942, just one year after Crane Naval Ammunition Depot was established during World War II. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)

“Critical to modernization efforts are minimizing human exposure to hazards through robotics and remote operating processes, seeking to reduce single points of failure and dependence on foreign suppliers, and building capacity and capability to support the Army and the joint force as we move into the future, all while sunsetting and divesting of legacy equipment, facilities and processes,” Daly said.

According to the Army’s organic industrial base implementation plan, the service will focus on five lines of effort — facilities; tooling and processes; workforce; network and cyber; and energy and environment — across three, five-year phases stretching from FY24 through FY38.

The 15-year plan, obtained by Defense News, is aimed at posturing to support enduring and modernized systems, ensuring the ability to surge production, reducing single points of failure, identifying and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities, reducing dependence on foreign suppliers and retiring legacy equipment and excess capacities.

The Army plans to modernize its facilities through the adoption of agile industrial processes, process improvement with sustainable utilities and resilient data infrastructure. The service will develop an “interconnected network of machine and sensors” that can gather data and analyze the information to streamline manufacturing, optimize production and generate surge capacity, the plan stated.

The workforce will need to be trained and developed to become artisans in a modernized infrastructure, the Army acknowledged.

The service also cites a need to use modern industrial standards, such as higher levels of automation and data exchange, which will require updating information technology and operational technology systems to make them more secure from cyberattacks.

The plan is geared toward ensuring facilities are climate resilient and that they efficiently use energy and other resources, such as water.

From FY23 to FY28, the Army’s projects will help build the foundation for 21st century capabilities, according to the plan. “The first phase focuses on building secure industrial control networks, leveraging robotics with computer program logic [and improving] workforce safety,” the document stated.

This includes building an optimized component remanufacturing facility and installing an industrial control network at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama; building a modernized powertrain facility for enduring platforms and to support future vertical lift aircraft when they come online at Corpus Christi Army Depot in Texas; and building a “one-way luminescence ammunition facility” for more efficient tracer production at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri.

Other facilities will be built and upgrades made to Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee; Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia; Red River Army Depot in Texas; Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania; and Watervliet Arsenal in New York.

In the second phase, from FY28-FY32, the Army will continue to build capabilities while addressing vulnerabilities. Projects include a consolidated combat vehicle assembly at Anniston; modernized pyrotechnic production at the Crane Army Ammunition plant in Indiana; future precision fires remanufacturing and the construction of a modernized and adaptive joint missile maintenance facility at Letterkenny Army Depot in Pennsylvania; and an upgraded primer mix house complex for Lake City.

At the end of this phase, “the Army will have a workforce postured to capitalize on the increased use of modern technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and data analytics,” according to the plan.

In the final phase stretching from FY32 to FY38, the Army will maintain and sustain its investments in a modernized organic industrial base. Corpus Christi will get a new aircraft remanufacturing facility; Letterkenny will get a Future Precision Fires Remanufacturing Complex; and Red River will get command-and-control and emerging-services facilities.

Also in this phase, the Army will provide Tooele Army Depot in Utah with accredited microgrids for energy resilience; Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas will get a multi-spectrum obscurant production upgrade; and the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center in Illinois will receive upgrades in aluminum and titanium casting and forging.

By the end of this phase, the Army will have “a technologically advanced infrastructure that leverages data, analytics, and process automation as its foundation, with a safer workforce employed in more energy and cyber resilient industrial processes,” according to the plan.

Throughout the process, the Army will use a comprehensive database visualization tool and master plan repository it is calling Vulcan, which will validate and synchronize hundreds of projects.

“Vulcan hosts vast amounts of detailed planning and budgetary data supporting 2500+ modernization projects planned and budgeted,” the document read. “Vulcan provides full-spectrum visualization capabilities for modernization — macro to micro — and it accurately links all projects to their transformation strategy, planned location, funding type and weapon system(s) to be supported.”

The tool will reside in the Army’s Vantage system, a data-driven operations and decision-making platform, the document notes.

“By merging the millions of data points contained in Vulcan into the Vantage environment, it can take full advantage of the Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) capable applications available to improve and accelerate decisions on everything from major construction, human capital and personnel readiness as well as Return on Investment (ROI) for each dollar spent on modernization,” the plan read.

The Army believes its plan to spend slightly more than $1 billion annually is cost-neutral and sustainable.

“However, this operationalized approach to modernization is contingent upon sufficient, predictable, sustainable and timely funding to ensure a successful outcome,” the document warned.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

更正——此前报道错误地描述了三硝胺等炸药的混合方法。炸药是在蒸汽加热的釜中混合的。

俄克拉荷马州麦卡莱斯特——美国陆军的许多弹药厂、兵工厂和仓库，大多建于二战时期，宛如那个时代的时光胶囊。军方已尝试对这些战时设施进行现代化改造，但要使它们真正适应21世纪，还有许多工作要做。

俄克拉荷马州麦卡莱斯特陆军弹药厂周围散布着灌木丛生的弹药库，这些弹药库建于 1943 年左右，形似霍比特人的洞穴。古老的廊桥从外部休息室延伸到横跨道路的生产设施，如今由于含有石棉而被关闭。

自二战以来，火车一直承担着物资运输和弹药运输的重任，所有货物都装在集装箱内。为了确保物资日夜不停地准时送达，陆军一直致力于升级铁路轨距和改进列车车厢。

漫长而昏暗的隧道连接着两处炮弹涂装和预处理设施，以及另一处装填炸药的设施。在一处设施内，机械臂正在喷涂炮弹外壳。

但联合弹药司令部司令加文·加德纳准将告诉《防务新闻》，这种自动化能力无法应用于混合炸药或装填炮弹等细微操作。他是在参观空军使用的500磅炸弹Mark 82的弹药厂生产线时表示的。操作人员仍然需要使用蒸汽加热的坩埚手动混合炸药，例如由80% TNT和20%铝粉组成的三元混合炸药，然后主要依靠手工将其添加到武器中。

上个月，《防务新闻》随陆军部长克里斯汀·沃姆斯参观了该工厂。

麦卡莱斯特陆军弹药厂的一名爆炸物处理员正在监控一台先进的喷漆机器人，该机器人正在为一枚MK82通用炸弹弹体涂漆。（照片由麦卡莱斯特陆军弹药厂提供）

在新冠疫情爆发前，这家生产这些炸弹的工厂的部分设施刚刚完成升级改造，包括引进了全新的机器设备。由于Mark 82生产线干净且易于改装，因此在用于制造武器之前，该工厂曾被安排大规模生产洗手液。

预计 2023 年将进行更多升级，包括一个由空军资助的多用途装载设施，该设施部分无人值守，并且在装载炸弹时将其埋在地下，用深层混凝土包裹，以防止爆炸。

麦卡莱斯特为国防部供应三分之一的弹药，被认为是首屈一指的炸弹和弹头装载设施，交付了数千枚 Mark 84 2000 磅炸弹、M11 炮弹和 105 毫米炮弹等等。

但麦卡莱斯特只是构成国防部自有工业基础的几个关键弹药厂和仓库之一——而且所有工厂和仓库都需要进行现代化改造。

陆军的自有工业基地由23个仓库、兵工厂和弹药厂组成。此外，还有超过19000个设施负责制造、翻新、维护或储存设备，并由超过32000名技术熟练的工匠和技术人员提供支持。

自 2009 年以来，陆军已投资超过 50 亿美元用于升级设施、基础设施和作战装备，但该军种承认需要制定更有针对性的投资计划。

过去几年，国会对有机工业基础的现代化表现出了特别浓厚的兴趣，至少从 2020 年起就举行了相关听证会，并向五角大楼提供资金，使老旧设施迈入 21 世纪，使其更安全、更高效。

“用‘令人震惊’来形容我们一些设施的状况一点也不夸张，”众议院战术空军和陆军小组委员会主席、新泽西州众议员唐纳德·诺克罗斯上个月在一次听证会上说。“生产进度、工具设施的运转情况都和二战时期差不多。”

诺克罗斯指出，在最近两部《国防授权法案》中，国会支持了陆军的基本预算及其未拨款的优先事项，以支付现代化计划的费用。

他说：“此举旨在启动常规弹药的升级、现代化以及安全高效生产的进程。”但他担心陆军在2023财年预算申请中没有拨出足够的资金来支付其工业基地设施现代化改造的费用。

陆军物资司令部司令爱德华·戴利将军告诉小组委员会，该部门制定了一项分三个阶段进行的计划，预计需要投资 160 亿美元，其中超过 80 亿美元用于升级弹药库。

图中所示为克莱恩海军弹药库的员工在1942年于一条弹药生产线上工作，当时距离克莱恩海军弹药库在二战期间建立仅一年。（照片由美国陆军提供）

戴利表示：“现代化工作的关键在于通过机器人和远程操作流程最大限度地减少人员接触危险，努力减少单点故障和对外国供应商的依赖，并建立能力和实力来支持陆军和联合部队迈向未来，同时淘汰和剥离遗留设备、设施和流程。”

根据陆军的有机工业基础实施计划，该军种将在三个五年阶段（从 2024 财年到 2038 财年）中，重点关注五个方面的工作——设施；工具和流程；劳动力；网络和网络安全；以及能源和环境。

《防务新闻》获得的这份为期 15 年的计划旨在为持久和现代化系统提供支持，确保能够迅速提高产量，减少单点故障，识别和缓解供应链脆弱性，减少对外国供应商的依赖，并淘汰老旧设备和过剩产能。

陆军计划通过采用敏捷工业流程、利用可持续公用设施改进流程以及构建弹性数据基础设施，实现设施现代化。该计划指出，陆军将开发一个“机器和传感器互联网络”，用于收集数据并分析信息，从而简化制造流程、优化生产并提升产能。

陆军承认，需要对劳动力进行培训和发展，使其成为现代化基础设施中的熟练技工。

该机构还指出，需要采用现代工业标准，例如更高水平的自动化和数据交换，这将需要更新信息技术和运营技术系统，使其更能抵御网络攻击。

该计划旨在确保设施具有气候适应能力，并高效利用能源和其他资源，例如水。

根据该计划，从2023财年到2028财年，陆军的项目将有助于构建21世纪能力的基础。文件指出：“第一阶段的重点是构建安全的工业控制网络，利用机器人技术和计算机程序逻辑，并提高工人安全。”

这包括在阿拉巴马州安尼斯顿陆军基地建造一个优化的零部件再制造设施并安装工业控制网络；在德克萨斯州科珀斯克里斯蒂陆军基地建造一个现代化的动力总成设施，用于持久平台并支持未来的垂直起降飞机上线；以及在密苏里州莱克城陆军弹药厂建造一个“单向发光弹药设施”，以更有效地生产曳光弹。

还将建设其他设施，并对田纳西州的霍尔斯顿陆军弹药厂、弗吉尼亚州的拉德福德陆军弹药厂、德克萨斯州的红河陆军仓库、宾夕法尼亚州的托比汉纳陆军仓库和纽约州的沃特弗利特兵工厂进行升级改造。

在第二阶段（2028财年至2032财年），陆军将继续提升自身能力，同时解决薄弱环节。项目包括：在安尼斯顿建设综合作战车辆组装厂；在印第安纳州克莱恩陆军弹药厂进行烟火生产现代化改造；在宾夕法尼亚州莱特肯尼陆军基地进行未来精确火力武器的再制造，并建设一座现代化且适应性强的联合导弹维护设施；以及在莱克城升级改造底火混合车间。

根据该计划，在这一阶段结束时，“陆军将拥有一支能够充分利用机器人、人工智能和数据分析等现代技术日益普及的队伍”。

在2032财年至2038财年的最后阶段，陆军将维持并加强其对现代化自有工业基地的投资。科珀斯克里斯蒂将新建一座飞机再制造厂；莱特肯尼将建成一座未来精确火力再制造综合设施；红河将建设指挥控制和新兴军种设施。

此外，在这一阶段，陆军还将为犹他州的图勒陆军基地提供经认证的微电网，以提高能源韧性；阿肯色州的派恩布拉夫兵工厂将进行多光谱遮蔽剂生产升级；伊利诺伊州的联合制造和技术中心将进行铝和钛铸造和锻造方面的升级。

根据该计划，到本阶段结束时，陆军将拥有“以数据、分析和流程自动化为基础的技术先进的基础设施，以及一支更安全的劳动力队伍，从事更具能源和网络安全韧性的工业流程”。

在整个过程中，陆军将使用一个名为 Vulcan 的综合数据库可视化工具和主计划存储库，该工具将验证和同步数百个项目。

文件指出：“Vulcan 系统存储着海量的详细规划和预算数据，支持着 2500 多个已规划和已编制预算的现代化项目。Vulcan 提供从宏观到微观的全方位现代化可视化功能，并将所有项目与其转型战略、计划地点、资金类型以及待支持的武器系统精确关联起来。”

文件指出，该工具将部署在陆军的 Vantage 系统中，这是一个数据驱动的作战和决策平台。

该计划指出：“通过将 Vulcan 中包含的数百万个数据点合并到 Vantage 环境中，可以充分利用人工智能 (AI)/机器学习 (ML) 应用，从而改进和加快从重大建设、人力资本和人员准备到现代化每投入一美元的投资回报率 (ROI) 等各个方面的决策。”

陆军认为其每年支出略高于10亿美元的计划是成本中性且可持续的。

“然而，这种现代化操作化方法取决于充足、可预测、可持续和及时的资金，以确保取得成功，”该文件警告说。

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。