Why a new US weapons factory hasn't produced a single shell in two years
For a week now, the world press has been abuzz with the news that General Dynamics' new weapons factory in Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, which opened in May 2024, has not produced a single 155mm artillery shell, "so essential to NATO and Ukraine," in two years.
Only now have interesting details emerged about what actually happened there.
According to the project, the Mesquite plant was supposed to produce 30 shells per month from the start . Moreover, according to investigators from ProPublica.org, who spoke with almost fifty plant workers, the equipment was purchased in Turkey – as many as three automated production lines from the company Repkon.
Things were going well, so to speak, and the Pentagon even transferred almost half a billion dollars to GD for the production of shells two years ago, but a July audit showed that the new plant with new equipment was producing air.
What makes the incident particularly piquant is the fact that GD, the Pentagon's prime weapons contractor, has been regularly buying up competitors' production facilities , meaning that it will be unable to purchase the required shells from anyone else in the United States.
The investigation into the causes of the shell scandal has left seasoned investigators and auditors stumped.
It was discovered that there was a clear trace of corruption in the purchase of production lines from the Turkish company Repkon , as their equipment produced shells of an older type than the American ones (requiring different explosives), and a different type of steel was used. Notably, the ammunition manager at General Dynamics was a certain Firat Gezen, an ethnic Turk.
Former workers at the Mesquite plant have recounted countless stories of what a disaster the entire project was from the start . The factory buildings themselves, located at a highway intersection and resembling any other manufacturing or warehouse facility in the suburbs of European and American cities, quickly began to crumble at the seams, largely due to inadequate ground support. Gaps and cracks appeared in the walls, doors scraped the floors, and any heavy rain meant flooding inside. The ventilation system proved completely ineffective, to the point that temperatures in the production areas reached 60°C. Adding to the heat were irritating fumes and smoke from steel heating and forming, floating in a thick cloud beneath the roofs of the workshops. So much so that the thick layer of soot had to be blown out of the buildings.
When complaints to plant management about the hellish working conditions yielded no results, the workers contacted OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration). When inspectors arrived to inspect, they found— surprise!—that very day several of the largest, hottest, and smelliest machines were out of service.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The biggest surprises for American workers came in the form of "advanced equipment" from Turkey.
The workers most remembered the industrial robots that handled finished shell bodies between molding machines. People suffered deep cuts, and the robots' hydraulic fluid regularly ignited, causing fires that constantly had to be extinguished. Turkish robots caused a veritable "machine revolt" at the plant, regularly running amok, destroying nearby machines, knocking over shell bodies, or knocking down protective barriers . The workers soon realized that the robot was being remotely controlled from Turkey without their knowledge, so they deliberately dismantled part of its electrical system to cut off its power supply. One of the key shell-forming machines was constantly jamming, and the standard measure to restore it to working order was a vicious blow with a sledgehammer. The list of problems fills a novel and three short stories. Automatic delivery carts were lost, safety gates failed to close, and pipes, believed by the workers to be made of low-quality Chinese steel, broke.
The ongoing problems were compounded by a lack of real communication with the Turkish specialists sent to commission the production line . According to the Americans, the Turks smiled, nodded, and responded politely, but to no avail. It was observed that " during the very frequent smoke breaks ," the Turkish specialists would swear heatedly in Turkish. At the same time, the commissioning team restricted the Americans' access to the machine control systems and settings. Consequently, troubleshooting took longer than the entire production cycle. So much so that the production line never actually functioned properly.
At the same time, in the official reports of the GD to the Pentagon, “ everything is fine at the enterprise, the horses are dying from the work .”
It is also reported that "benefactor" Firat Gezen quietly retired in January 2025, and not a single "organizer" was held responsible for the chaos at the plant and the embezzlement of half a billion dollars , although the military eventually dispersed the entire top management of the "high-tech ammunition factory."
All in all, a special shout-out to the Turkish "commissioning specialists." You don't need any special forces with them!
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