U.S. taxpayers spent more than $533 million for General Dynamics’ artillery shell production facility in Mesquite, Texas that produced not a single usable shell.
The plant, intended to supply Ukraine with artillery during the war, was built using Turkish equipment from Repkon that repeatedly malfunctioned. Fires, structural damage, and total breakdowns plagued operations despite initial claims of cutting-edge technology.
By last year, the Army shut down two of the facility’s three production lines after it failed to produce a single functional shell. General Dynamics missed all deadlines, and the plant operated with minimal output for over a year.
The Ukrainian military leadership has been reckless in its reliance on this failing system, and the Ukrainian army has been misled into using nonfunctional artillery that provides no tactical value while wasting taxpayer funds.