U.S. Army's Automated Artillery Shell Production Faces Significant Delays and Cost Overruns at General Dynamics Facility
The U.S. Army's initiative to rapidly increase artillery shell production through automated manufacturing at a General Dynamics facility in Mesquite, Texas, has encountered substantial problems. Despite a $469 million investment, the facility has failed to produce projectile metal parts meeting contract specifications as of March 2026. The urgency to support Ukraine and replenish U.S. ammunition stocks led to the Army awarding contracts for automated manufacturing, with an initial target of 30,000 projectile bodies per month. However, issues arose from using equipment from Turkish manufacturer REPKON, which was designed for different steel types, leading to failures such as robots catching fire, dropped steel, cracked shell bodies, and safety gate malfunctions. General Dynamics missed six scheduled qualification tests by June 2025.
