The excerpt below is from a 4/26/23 piece on The War Zone (emphasis- italics and bolding- added):
"Yesterday, we wrote about the more than four million howitzer shells, rockets, mortars and other munitions the U.S. has provided Ukraine. Today,
The Wall Street Journal took a deep dive into concerns about this nation's supply chain, especially with lingering problems from a 2021 explosion at a Louisiana factory that was "the sole domestic source of an explosive the Department of Defense relies on to produce bullets, mortar shells, artillery rounds and Tomahawk missiles."
"The ramshackle facility makes the original form of gunpowder, known today as black powder, a highly combustible material with hundreds of military applications," the newspaper reported. "The product, for which there is no substitute, is used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives."
The factory remains offline, highlighting the precarious nature of the U.S. weapons supply chain for items like Stingers, howitzers, anti-armor systems and artillery ammunition.
"Stocks are low in both the U.S. and its NATO allies, especially in 155mm howitzer shells, an ammunition that has been crucial to pushing back Russian forces."
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Can you imagine what would happen to these supply chains if the U.S. were in an actual state of active war, or NATO was?” said Jeff Rhoads, executive director of the Purdue Institute for National Security, a defense-research institute at Purdue University. “They could be in trouble very quickly.”
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Was this facility the only of its kind in the USA prior to the end of the Cold War? I can't imagine the country putting all of its eggs in one basket like that. But, if so, damage inflicted by Spetsnaz saboteurs or submarine-launched TLAM's could have had a disastrous effect on long-term sustainment of high intensity combat operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Korea in the T2kU.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...r-lack-of-ammo
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