Army expects to make more than a million artillery shells next year
Armaments chief says new factories, streamlined processes will hit goal just a few months late.
Meghann Myers | June 17, 2025
The U.S. Army has nearly tripled its production of 155mm howitzer shells since the Ukraine war began, millions of which have been sent to that country’s front lines. It’s going to miss its goal of making 100,000 per month by October, but likely by just a few months.
The service’s current monthly output stands at 40,000, up from 14,500 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than three years ago, according to data provided by the Army. The original plan called for making about twice as many by now.
“Several of the investments that we made are just coming online now, a little later than we had hoped, but these were big bets, and we were given the mission to go fast,” Maj. Gen. John Reim, head of the joint armaments and ammunitions program executive office, told Defense One. “We put multiple bets down, and realized some risk…but we will continue to work through that.”
In February 2024, the Army announced that it aimed to produce 60,000 shells per month that October, 75,000 in April 2025, and 100,000 by this October.
https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2025/06/army-expects-make-more-million-artillery-shells-next-year/406132/
