The US Army arsenal from 1813 that’s building weapons for Ukraine – By Jen Judson (Defense News) / July 11, 2023
WATERVLIET, N.Y. — On a spring day here at Watervliet Arsenal, workers tapped commands into computers and peered into futuristic pods to watch a robotic arm carve small metal cannon parts.
They sat just steps away from dozens of World War II-era, rusted machining tools, which until recently were used to painstakingly craft these parts.
The facility — America’s oldest working arsenal — is nestled by the Hudson River in upstate New York and serves as the only U.S. Army facility able to produce the large caliber cannon tubes critical to tanks, artillery systems and mortars.
Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, everything old at Watervliet is new again. The pace of battle in Eastern Europe is highlighting the long-established need to outgun the enemy, a difficult task given the strength of Russia’s artillery.
