The U.S. Army upgrade at its manufacturing center at Watervliet, New York, will include heat treatment facilities to position the Arsenal to better support the emerging readiness needs of U.S. and foreign militaries.
Arsenal Commander Col. Joseph Morrow said the Arsenal has received more than $100 million in new orders over what it had at this same point in time last year.
“This is not the same Arsenal that it was when I took command in July 2016,” said Morrow. “Due to a significant and recent rise in sustainment and modernization readiness needs of our Army and of our allies, we must nearly double our current manufacturing capacity in the next four years.”
Recent Arsenal commanders have raised the issue of aging plant equipment to the Army’s senior leaders and, as a result, various Army weapon program managers have stepped in to augment the Arsenal’s limited-funded CIP activity by paying for equipment upgrades or for new machines. The Arsenal team was well prepared for the day when additional funding would come in by already having an established list of priorities for capability and capacity upgrades, said James Kardas, an Arsenal industrial engineer.
Although funding has arrived, due to the complexity of some of the larger machines and the challenges of preparing foundations to support the new machines, the final machine from this funding may not be on line until 2020. Nevertheless, some of the smaller, less complex machines may arrive in 2018.
The Watervliet Arsenal, an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility located in Watervliet, New York, is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States, having begun operations during the War of 1812.
