The US is in many aspects now engaged in multiple long run wars. The military now faces a bleeding of resources that were last experienced in the Vietnam war. Events have placed a new emphasis on the lowly 155 mm artillery shell. A good solid piece of WW1 tech. It has the honor of weighing about 100 lbs and thus about the limit to what can be loaded by hand. Larger shells take complicated automatic loaders and have only a marginal greater effect. It is cheap, accurate, and can be moved quickly. The use of drones, space observations, GPS, and modern technology have made it a fairly accurate weapon and with terminal guidance it is a very effective weapon. The use of modern shell tracking radar has also made mobility a major concern. If the gun stays in one spot, counter battery fire will destroy it. The Ukrainian war has shown that both the Russians and Ukraine depend upon it for the main weapon at the actual battle line. It peaked at about 200,000 in 2023 - 24 and is down to about 60,000 a month now. The Russians fired about a third as many shells for a total on both sides approaching 275,000 a month at its peak. The US was at that time making about about 15,000 a month and had no TNT manufacturing facility in the US. We could make the propelling powder but not the TNT for the warhead. Last plant that could do that closed in 1980's. In spite of massive amounts of money being spent, we are now in 2026 making about 36,000 shells a month and they depend on the use of imported TNT. The US central planning aimed at 100,000 shells a month by 2025. A new plant, costing about 500 million was ordered and built by the usual big defense contractor with its usual profit margin, As usual it has yet to produce any usable amount of product, Army official ‘not happy’ as Mesquite facility's 155mm production lags - Breaking Defense New $500M Artillery Shell Plant Failed To Produce Any 155mm Parts Mean while we are finally going to make the TNT for the warheads in the US. A new 1/2 billion dollar plant is being built with production aimed at by 2028. It is still in the construction phase and if and when it will be in production is still to be seen. Meanwhile we import the TNT needed in the shells as well as some of the elements used to make the shells. We need manganese to make the steel and have not mined any in the USA since the 1970's. U.S. Army boosts funding for new Kentucky TNT plant While I have used the example of 1 limited central planed military, there are almost an unlimited number of others following the old military industrial complex with its ties to the government funding, Eisenhower warned of its dangers in his farewell speech of its dangers. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address (1961) The bombers that are to expensive to build, the fighters that don't meet spec and have a low availability record, the new engines and electronics in a 1980's design, the infrastructure builds that are not finished or are years late, the new Navy destroyer that is an updated 1980,s hull design with the designs that followed mostly gone. All have been a drain on our economy and as preppers the world we live in now is like the water is to the fish. Problem is there is nothing I can do about it and I still like my 1911 and 03 Springfield 30-06 and will try to hang on them until I die. Thay and my 1957 issued survival knife have served me well for the last 70 years.
