TIL that the USA only has one plant that produces gun barrels for the M1 Abrams tank, M777 howitzers, and Paladin self propelled howitzers. The Watervliet Arsenal in Troy, NY is the nation's oldes...

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https://breakingdefense.com/2025/01/army-two-star-general-talks-watervliet-expansion-finding-secondary-canon-tube-producers/

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Gnomeslikeprofit on 2026-07-26 22:13:19+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that the USA only has one plant that produces gun barrels for the M1 Abrams tank, M777 howitzers, and Paladin self propelled howitzers. The Watervliet Arsenal in Troy, NY is the nation’s oldest arsenal dating back to 1813. The manufacturing plant has tripled its production over the last 3 years.

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It would be good to not exactly give out this sort of information. With all the crazy people out there in ruzzia for example, I much rather not get invaded by rogue drones or whatever.

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Comments in Today I Learned@lemmy.world

Seems like a bad idea to have all your eggs in one basket, no?

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Have you considered how unprofitable it is to run it in a different way? Why do you hate profits?!

/s

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Good luck attacking it

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Looking at what Ukrainian special forces are doing in Russia, it’s less impossible than five years ago. Like that time they destroyed strategic bombers with drones smuggled in mobile homes driving by the airport.

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Russia is known for being geographically easy to invade. The US is surrounded by water…

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It’s ok, most of their eggs have been recalled.

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I wonder how many they forge in a year. The article says production tripled in 2022 due to the Ukraine war, I am curious what that number is.

How often does a tank need to replace its barrel?

I wonder when the last time the US lost a Self Propelled Howitzer? WWII/ Korea?

Did a bunch get destroyed/spiked when the US pulled out of Afghanistan?

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Barrels are a wear item on these things, the Abrahams replaces a barrel at 1500 shots. While they may not lose many mechanisms, there’s still passive demand for barrels.

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When it is replaced is it scrap or do they rebore it and reuse it?

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I bet it’s scrap, the force and pressure on those things is nuts

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The 777 howitzer barrel is made of titanium. The US doesnt have a reliable source for it so I would expect they are sent back and recast

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That’s what scrapping is.

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I was thinking more about the supply chain and recycling the metal directly back to manufacture. If you scrapped the barrels like we scrap most things the titanium would probably be lost. Where it broke would be where it lay.

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Pronounced water-vuh-leet in the bastardized Dutch that is rampant in upstate NY.

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When I lived up there, I only ever heard water-vil-ay

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Should be WAA•tuhr•*vleet*, if going by Dutch pronunciation. /ˈwaː.tərˌvliːt/

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Hence me calling it bastardized haha

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I was corrected endlessly until I used water-vuh-leet.

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In the business we call this a single point of failure

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With war changing so quickly, how much longer will such heavy metal be useful?

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Artillery will be used for a thousand years. It’s convenient cheap and can be stored in bulk safely with whatever shells you want. You can deliver drones with it even.

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So more bang for the buck

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