Ukraine: Inside the Pennsylvania ammunition plant helping the war effort

Published

2 years ago

February 20, 2023

admin

Five thousand miles from the frontline battlefields, the bowels of a former railway plant in a Pennsylvanian city is an unlikely place to find Ukraine’s war effort in full swing.

Sky News was invited inside a US Army ammunition plant for a tour designed to show that the West is not running out of ammunition.

Ukraine war – latest: Putin was ‘dead wrong’, Joe Biden says on surprise visit to Kyiv

Last week, the NATO secretary-general delivered a blunt warning to Western nations.

“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” Jens Stoltenberg said.

And so on the production line of a century-old factory, in the rust-belt town of Scranton, American steelworkers are producing round after round of artillery.

We found an industry, increasingly dismissed as obsolete, now in overdrive.

“We’re working as hard as we need to work to meet the requirements of the contracts,” the US army’s boss at this plant, Richard Hansen, told me as we watched red-hot steel rods pass down a conveyor belt.

“We’re working two shifts every day – a solid two shifts every day, 15 to 16 hours a day, five to six days a week and also preparing to increase production incrementally.”

None of the officials at the plant will mention Ukraine itself. Language is carefully controlled; instead the phrases are “matching contracts” and “meeting demand”.

But the contract is Ukraine and the demand is huge. Officials admit that the production of artillery in America has not been this intense since the Korean War 70 years ago.

Production is at a 70-year high

In this factory alone, 11,000 155 millimetre artillery rounds now roll off its line each month. And yet it is not nearly matching what Ukraine’s army is using.

Between 5,000 and 7,000 artillery shells are used in Ukraine every day. In some of the most intense fighting, they’ve used 10,000 a day.

That rate is set to increase further as winter turns to spring and new offensives by both sides begin. It’s why the US military is investing $2bn to ramp up production in facilities like Scranton.

Over the past several decades, Western military planners and political leaders have been shifting focus and investment to high-tech warfare.

‘I am proud of what we do’

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were against insurgencies; asymmetrical battles where investment in equipment like drones became a priority over tanks and artillery.

Incorrect judgements were made about the likelihood of an old-fashioned mechanical war – a continental land battle.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spooked western governments. China’s eye on Taiwan further exposes western capability gaps and future challenges.

In America, Cold War-era factories and old rivalries are being fired up.

“Russia is obviously wrong and we are doing the right thing by supporting them,” one worker told me.

Another added: “Yeah – it’s a busy day right now. It’s been going really good. I am proud of what we do. It’s exciting to be a part of it.”

Mr Hansen said: “It’s an opportunity for local Scrantonians to be able to work for the US government and support the joint war fight so it’s something that they appreciate.”

The Ukraine conflict has proved that a “just in time” ammunition supply chain is unsustainable and stockpiles are shrinking.

But this race against Russia to rearm is time-consuming, expensive and the section of the production line we’re watching in Scranton is the easy part.

Click to subscribe to Ukraine War Diaries wherever you get your podcasts

‘We need investment’

From Pennsylvania, the artillery casings are transported a thousand miles west to Iowa where they are filled with explosives and armed with fuses. The raw materials for the explosives are costly.

From Iowa, they are then shipped to eastern Europe.

“It’s a very difficult process, it’s highly engineered, so certainly you don’t wanna ramp up too quickly because quality is the number one aspect, what we look for. Nothing easier without being inspected multiple times,” Mr Hansen tells me.

Russia is not constrained by Western industrial safety and quality standards.

It also has fewer commercial restraints. President Vladimir Putin has switched the Russian economy to a war footing allowing for increased production in an industry typically hampered by inefficiency and corruption.

In Pennsylvania, Mr Hansen welcomed the US government investment in his factory, but his message for the politicians and industrial leaders was clear.

He said: “You need to continue to invest your time and your money into a facility… we are communicating to our leadership, the things that we need here – me specifically at Scranton – need to ensure that we can continue to efficiently produce what we need to produce here.”

US

Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

admin

Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022

A man has pleaded guilty to murdering four University of Idaho students in November 2022.

Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old former criminal justice student, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania weeks after the killings.

He was accused of sneaking into the rented home in Moscow, Idaho, which is not far from the university campus, and attacking Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves.

Kohberger previously pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and burglary.

It comes after he agreed to a plea deal, just weeks before his trial was set to begin, in a bid to avoid the death penalty.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

US

Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has sparked ugly debate – so why is it so controversial?

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

admin

Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' has sparked ugly debate - so why is it so controversial?

It is certainly big – 940 pages long – but on the question of beauty, Congress is divided.

Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has sparked ugly debate – both for its ambitious scope and for the political manoeuvring that’s gone on around it.

Elon Musk branded it “political suicide” for Republicans and threatened to fund challenges against those who back it in next year’s midterm elections.

But the president hit back, suggesting he would consider cutting Musk’s lucrative government contracts or even deporting him back to South Africa.

The “big, beautiful bill”, or HR 1 to give the proposed legislation its proper title, is Mr Trump’s signature spending and tax policy.

It extends tax cuts he secured in 2017 and bankrolls his second-term agenda in the White House.

Here is a summary of the key points:

• Permanent tax cuts: Extending relief from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

• Small business support: Doubling the small business expensing limit to $2.5m (£1.8m) to help businesses expand and hire staff

• Child tax credit: Expanding the child tax credit and making it permanent, benefiting 40 million families

• Making housing affordable: Expanding the low-income housing tax credit to kickstart construction of affordable homes

• Defence and border security: Allocating $170bn (£123bn) for border security alone, including $46bn (£33bn) for completing the border wall

• Made-in-America incentives: Providing tax breaks and incentives for domestic manufacturing to promote US industry

• Healthcare and social welfare: Implementing restrictions on Medicaid, which provides healthcare for millions of Americans, and reducing funding for certain healthcare and nutrition programmes.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

Clash over ‘monster’ debt bill

Musk, Mr Trump’s former ally and the man who established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed the bill “raises the debt ceiling by $5trn, the biggest increase in history.”

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” was President Trump’s response.

The national debt currently stands at $37trn (£27trn) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the bill could add $2.4trn (£1.7trn) to that over the next decade.

Bill splits Republican ranks

Republican Senator Thom Tillis voted against the bill and, following criticism from the president, announced he would not seek re-election in North Carolina.

He said he couldn’t support it due to his concerns about the impact cuts to Medicaid would have on people in his state.

Democrats in the Senate forced a full reading of all 940 pages and then a vote-a-rama, a series of marathon voting sessions.

In the House of Representatives, it passed by a single vote, 215-214. In the Senate, Vice President JD Vance, had to cast the deciding vote to break a tie (50-50).

Legislatively, the progress of the bill has been a case study in the complexities of American law-making.

Strategically, it represents a mammoth effort to consolidate the president’s policy agenda and secure his legacy.

US

Gaza ceasefire proposal a significant moment – but there are still many unanswered questions

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

admin

Gaza ceasefire proposal a significant moment - but there are still many unanswered questions

In the long Gaza war, this is a significant moment.

For the people of Gaza, for the Israeli hostages and their families – this could be the moment it ends. But we have been here before, so many times.

The key question – will Hamas accept what Israel has agreed to: a 60-day ceasefire?

At the weekend, a source at the heart of the negotiations told me: “Both Hamas and Israel are refusing to budge from their position – Hamas wants the ceasefire to last until a permanent agreement is reached.

“Israel is opposed to this. At this point, only President Trump can break this deadlock.”

The source added: “Unless Trump pushes, we are in a stalemate.”

Israel-Gaza – live updates

The problem is that the announcement made now by Donald Trump – which is his social-media-summarised version of whatever Israel has actually agreed to – may just amount to Israel’s already-established position.

We don’t know the details and conditions attached to Israel’s proposals.

Would Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza? Totally? Or partially? How many Palestinian prisoners would they agree to release from Israel’s jails? And why only 60 days? Why not a total ceasefire? What are they asking of Hamas in return?

We just don’t know the answers to any of these questions, except one.

We do know why Israel wants a 60-day ceasefire, not a permanent one. It’s all about domestic politics.

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were to agree now to a permanent ceasefire, the extreme right-wingers in his coalition would collapse his government.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have both been clear about their desire for the war to continue. They hold the balance of power in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition.

If Mr Netanyahu instead agrees to just 60 days – which domestically he can sell as just a pause – then that may placate the extreme right-wingers for a few weeks until the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, is adjourned for the summer.

It is also no coincidence that the US president has called for Mr Netanyahu’s corruption trial to be scrapped.

Without the prospect of jail, Mr Netanyahu might be more willing to quit the war, safe in the knowledge that focus will not shift immediately to his own political and legal vulnerability.