Back to the drawing board for Australia’s plans to manufacture 155 mm high explosive rounds onshore. ⬇️
In the last few weeks there has been a bit of news about munitions and in particular that key consumable of combat the 155 mm high explosive rounds fired by NATO standard medium artillery guns.
The Guided Weapons and Explosives Ordinance (GWEO) Enterprise had originally announced that Thales would be establishing a forge at Benalla to produce 15,000 155mm M795 artillery rounds per annum. The forge was also to be built with capacity to increase up to 100,000 rounds per annum for global consumption.
Late last week an announcement slipped out that GWEO is now accelerating production of naval 5 inch munitions and will renegotiate its 155 mm high explosive requirements. What seems to be up for re-negotiation is the latent capacity that was planned for the Benalla forge. While having the ability to manufacture naval 5 inch munitions on shore is undoubtedly a good thing, we need greater capacity than present demand to ensure our Defence Industrial base is future ready.
Earlier in June Defense One reported that the US Army’s acceleration of onshore munitions manufacture was behind schedule:
“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.”
One of the key enablers of rapid mobilisation and scaling is latent capacity in our military and in our industrial base. Just as a strong Reserve can enable a military to scale up quickly, a strong Industrial Reserve is vital. An Industrial Reserve could be enabled by war stocks, latent capacity and bare base industrial facilities.
Just a reminder – Australia manufactured averaged production of 1.2 million medium artillery rounds per annum in World War II for our own needs and that of our allies and partners.
Food for thought!
📸 via US Department of Defense, links to Defense One article and the Department of Defence media release in the comments.