History of the Ammunition Industrial Base - JMC - U.S. Army

Despite shortfalls, when the threat of WWII surfaced in the summer of 1940, the
Ordnance Department mobilization planning created a level of readiness never before achieved
in prior U.S. mobilizations. Their accomplishments included industrial requirement estimates for
a major war. They created the Army Industrial College to train officers in the tasks of military
procurement and industrial mobilization. They set up procurement districts and zones to
decentralize and expedite the gathering of procurement information and the planning of
procurement operations. They arranged a systematic survey of industrial facilities and assigned
those facilities to the appropriate Technical Services. They studied WWI and learned from
shortages and problem areas that they focused on to prevent repeated mistakes. They studied
legislation and administrative problems that the Nation‟s resources might present in the future
and created procedures to deal with them. They also produced an Industrial Mobilization Plan, a
blueprint for the control of the Nation‟s resources in time of war. 27 The initiatives and
accomplishments provided invaluable administrative gains needed in the preparation for
involvement in WWII.
With the limited number of commercial producers, the best solution to meet future
munitions requirements would be to build new government owned contractor operated (GOCO)
plants for WWII. Within each passing year, the Ordnance Department (OD) directed more
attention to developing plans for the speedy conversion of private industry to new munitions
producers during wartime. By 1940 the American public attitude was changing, and people
demanded a more adequate national defense. The U.S. had plants operating prior to U.S. entry
into WWII due to the foresight of the OD and alliance needs. In 1937, the OD established joint
military-commercial planning officers for explosives and propellants. These offices were
charged with developing plans for the construction of plants for explosive, propellants, and
required chemicals. Similar offices were established to focus on artillery, bomb, fuze, and small
arms component assembly. The offices were assisted by planners from Dupont and Hercules
Powder as well as other experts from the limited commercial ammunition base. They considered
all aspects of plant layout to include relationships with suppliers, transportation, safety distance,
and line flexibility to respond to fluctuating requirements.
The OD initiated these talks because they understood they‟d have to create relationships
between the War Department and commercial industry to produce ammunition for a global war.
While other ordnance items and quartermaster supply requirements like trucks, airplanes, tanks,
and rifles were more easily made in the commercial plants, there were only a handful of small
commercial ammunition producers. For products like smokeless powder, TNT, ammonia,
artillery and small arms ammunition, there were no existing government plants that could be
readily converted. Because ammunition plants offered none of the usual attractions for private
industry and capital, the OD recognized they would have to build at government expense.
Ordnance engineers, the small peacetime explosives industry, Frankford and Picatinny Arsenals
all cooperated and drew up plans and specifications for plants to be built rapidly in response to
WWII.
The OD was committed to building a government owned ammunition base, but realized
that not all production would have to occur in GOCO plants. Based on analysis and industry
input, they were able to limit GOCO facilities to propellant and explosive production to include
required chemical manufacturing processes, while private industry made most metal parts. In
27 OCH Vol. l, 5.
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