Narrator: This factory in Pennsylvania
is making Ukraine's most important ammunition.
155 mm rounds are basically
giant bullets used in artillery guns.
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant has been
making steel shells since 1953, and today, demand is so high
that it's making 11,000 of them every month.
Ukraine may be firing more than half of that each day.
Narrator: So there's a global shortage.
Some experts are concerned
that the US is burning through its own supply.
So why is this particular artillery ammo
so important in Ukraine,
and how is the US arming them during the shortage?
At the start of the war,
air power was expected to be the key to a Russian victory.
They outnumbered Ukraine in military aircrafts 10 to 1.
But Ukraine found ways
to shoot down Russia's warplanes
and defend against its missile attacks.
Putin pivoted to massive artillery strikes.
The problem was most
of Ukraine's artillery weapons dated back to the Soviet era.
They required ammunition produced mostly
by Russia and its supporters, China and North Korea.
So Ukraine called on the US and its NATO allies for aid.
The US alone sent Ukraine about 200 artillery guns
that required ammo they already had in stock,
155 mm rounds.
Now, they're one of Ukraine's most critical weapons.
155s are the perfect balance between power and weight.
They're shot from howitzers,
which are basically a cannon and mortar combined.
These massive guns fire shells high up
into the air so that they drop down onto their targets.
155 mm rounds are small enough
to fire up to 20 miles but still do serious damage.
They're packed with 24 pounds of TNT and explode
on impact, sending deadly shrapnel in all directions.
They're also less expensive than fancier weapons.
Javelin anti-tank missiles can cost as much as $78,000,
and these shells sell for as little as $800.
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant builds the steel shells
for the US' most basic 155 mm round: the M795.
The US is producing 24,000 a month,
almost double what it was making
before Russia invaded Ukraine. And nearly half
of that supply comes from this factory.
Everything starts in the billet yard.
Workers move steel rods to the next phase,
the forge shop.
Four robotic saws slice the rods
into 14-inch-long chunks called billets.
Efficiency is key to speed.
Narrator: Then they heat them for an hour
at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
This softens them up so they're easy to shape.
Narrator: Then, machines stretch
and shape the billets into their final form.
Another one adds a nose, which makes it aerodynamic.
It comes into the press,
it's still a tube. As it leaves the press,
it's now a projectile.
Narrator: They're inspected
and then fed to the production shop.
Then, the grand finale.
Workers reheat the billets,
then cool them in a 6,000-gallon oil bath.
After some final lathing and polishing,
workers hang the shells on hooks.
Then they get a fresh paint job.
The entire process takes about three days.
After the shells are done, they take a truck ride
to another factory that adds TNT.
Then they're ready for the battlefield.
It's there that soldiers will add the fuse and turn it
into a lethal bomb.
155s have been used by the US and its allies
since World War I.
They were small enough to hit targets
up to 7 miles away but packed enough power
to penetrate enemy trenches.
Announcer: United Nations guns go into action
against red positions.
Narrator: After World War II,
155 mm became a standard artillery size
for NATO countries.
Today, the US has rounds equipped
with GPS guidance systems
that cost over $100,000 per shell.
Since the war began, all the NATO allies have
sent Ukraine some form of military aid.
They've donated tanks, anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers,
and missile-defense systems.
But the US tops the list.
They've sent roughly $42 billion worth
of weapons to Ukraine.
While expensive weapons like these make headlines,
it's artillery that Ukraine is using more than anything.
This past spring, Ukrainian forces were firing
up to 8,000 155 mm shells a day.
According to a June report,
Germany sent Ukraine so many shells
that it had about 20,000 left in its stockpile.
That’s enough for only a few days of intensive combat.
Critics are worried the same thing could happen to the United States
What we need most of all is artillery shells,
and they're in short supply.
We're working on that.
Narrator: The US has sent more
than 2 million 155 mm rounds to Ukraine.
But most of that came from its own stockpile,
which it uses to train soldiers and aid other allies.
While the true status
of the nation's stockpile is a closely guarded secret,
some experts are concerned that it could be running low.
The scale of Ukrainian need
versus American capacity to build are very different.
Narrator: The US has already borrowed
half a million 155 mm shells
from South Korea to help resupply its own stockpile.
It's also turned to Japan for more TNT.
We've hit the level at which the Pentagon planners
are uncomfortable going any lower
because of the demands for other war plans.
Narrator: The Army has spent billions
updating its factories to make more 155s.
They want to make 85,000 shells per month
by 2028, over three times the current output.
But it could still take years to refill the stockpile.
Sam: You need to hire people.
You need more of the steel to build the shells.
You need to have a larger factory space.
You have to follow all of the safety requirements,
because each of these has to meet a military specification
for usage and have to go through the inspection process.
Narrator: In July 2023,
the US announced its decision to send Ukraine a controversial type
of 155 equipped with cluster bombs.
Russia has also used them.
Each shell contains 88 small explosives,
or bomblets, that are released in midair.
They can cover an area up to 7 acres
and destroy everything from trenches to tanks.
But these rounds are banned in over 120 countries
because the bomblets sometimes fail to explode
on impact and harm civilians who find them later on.
94% of recorded cluster-bomb deaths are civilians,
and almost 40% of those are children.
The US has already sent thousands to Ukraine
in its latest $800 million military aid package in July.
President Biden has said
that the cluster bombs are only a temporary solution.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a lack
of ammunition is what's keeping his military
from reclaiming Russian-occupied territory more quickly.
But the US Army says its goals for increasing
its 155 output are on pace.
That's good for Ukraine,
as it could be the difference in taking back their country.
In June, they launched a counteroffensive
against Russian troops.
They tried to break Russian defenses with heavy tanks
at first, but switched their strategy to artillery fire.
It's been moving slowly.
So they'll need plenty of shells for the long haul.