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The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up.
The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 26, 2023 | Gordon Lubold

Posted on 04/29/2023 10:31:06 PM PDT by kiryandil

Decades of consolidation have left the Pentagon vulnerable to mishaps—including when the sole maker of a crucial type of gunpowder went offline

MINDEN, La.—Nearly two years ago, an errant spark inside a mill caused an explosion so big it destroyed all the building’s equipment and blew a corrugated fiberglass wall 100 feet.

It also shut down the sole domestic source of an explosive the Department of Defense relies on to produce bullets, mortar shells, artillery rounds and Tomahawk missiles.

The ramshackle facility makes the original form of gunpowder, known today as black powder, a highly combustible material with hundreds of military applications. The product, for which there is no substitute, is used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives.

No one was hurt in the June 2021 blast. But the factory remains offline, unable to deliver its single vital component to either commercial or Pentagon customers.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: backupplan; banglist; blackpowder; dod; estesenergetics; hodgdon; mindenpowdermill; planahead; stupid
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To: Secret Agent Man

No worry,we are going to use electric bombs now


41 posted on 04/30/2023 5:04:31 AM PDT by ballplayer
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To: Jonty30

And there are thousands from around the world licking their chops to rush the border on May 11….how many of those are agents of china , russia and terrorists muslims from the middle east? We are screwed!! Thousands are not here with just good intentions, they’re here to destroy America from the inside out …stupid DC swamp! What happened yesterday in Texas is an example of what’s coming our way. And all governor Abbet can do is twiddling his thumbs. No emergency calling out the reserve guards nothing. Because he is part of the problem, a bush elite, and part of the DC swamp.


42 posted on 04/30/2023 5:50:10 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: Hootowl99

Crane?


43 posted on 04/30/2023 5:56:14 AM PDT by caver
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To: Freedom4US

Modern substitutes for black powder are far more efficient, for example some grains actually are perforated with channels and holes to allow better combustion.

I always thought black powder was a little less stable, but I’m not a chemist. That’s just what I sort of heard off hand.


44 posted on 04/30/2023 5:57:48 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: kiryandil
Black powder is not used in modern arms in any fashion with the notable exception of very large cannon. None of the arms listed in the article utilize black powder.

Black powder is the "lowest" explosive that can make it to military charts.

45 posted on 04/30/2023 5:58:03 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: mabarker1

Black powder is self-oxidizing.


46 posted on 04/30/2023 6:00:05 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: mabarker1

The fact that it blew up without fatalities tells me they have a handle on the safety stuff. Obviously taking oxidation out of the equation would be the perfect environment. It’s probably not practical in scale.


47 posted on 04/30/2023 6:00:30 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: BenLurkin

I suspect every male over the age of 12 knows how to make black powder.


48 posted on 04/30/2023 6:04:13 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: kiryandil

“Department of Defense relies on to produce bullets”

What?


49 posted on 04/30/2023 6:33:39 AM PDT by dljordan
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To: GingisK
Black powder is not used in modern arms in any fashion with the notable exception of very large cannon. None of the arms listed in the article utilize black powder.

So your contention is that the entire premise of the article is false, because black powder is not used to detonate the primary charges in the weapons listed?

50 posted on 04/30/2023 6:39:06 AM PDT by Pilsner
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

My father-in-law worked at Silas Mason & Hanger’s Pantex plant for 40 years. He was a Mason & Hanger employee, not a Pantex employee. He was a division manager for 7 years of the 40. He died in December 2009. (I took him for his last visit to the plant for a meeting in October 2009.)

They did not own the plant but had the government contract and they had a facility in Minden. He never talked shop, but told me about how hard it was to find good workers for the Minden operation.


51 posted on 04/30/2023 7:02:01 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born but a State of Heart, Mind and Attitude.)
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To: kiryandil

https://www.defenseone.com/voices/gordon-lubold/9686/

(photo at link)

Gordon Lubold is a senior military writer for Defense One. Before that, he was a senior national security writer for Foreign Policy magazine and foreignpolicy.com, where he launched and authored the widely-read Situation Report newsletter, sent to 150,000 readers in the foreign policy and national security community each day.

Prior to that, he was a senior advisor at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, where he writes on national security and foreign policy.

Prior to his arrival at USIP, he was a defense reporter for Politico, where he launched the popular “Morning Defense” early morning blog and tip-sheet.

Prior to that, he was the Pentagon and national security correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor,

and before that he was the Pentagon correspondent for the Army Times chain of newspapers.

He has covered conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries in South Asia, and has reported on military matters in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

He has spoken frequently on the sometimes-contentious relationship between the military and the media as a guest on numerous panels.

He also appears on radio and television, including CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN and others, and radio programs such as “Diane Rehm” and “To the Point,” a syndicated broadcast on NPR.


52 posted on 04/30/2023 7:09:53 AM PDT by Texas Fossil (Texas is not where you were born but a State of Heart, Mind and Attitude.)
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To: kiryandil

God punishes you when you only have one of something.


53 posted on 04/30/2023 7:21:05 AM PDT by Army ret QM
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To: Secret Agent Man; kiryandil; 4everontheRight; 4Liberty; 5thGenTexan; 45semi; 101stAirborneVet; ...
Prepper ping - Your Government and Pentagon consolidation at work
The Minden Louisianna plant which produces black powder to ignite powerful explosives went “bang” in June, 2021 blast remains offline.

Secret Agent Man :"Well it appears OBiden made it priority to get it back online again. /sarc "

”..MINDEN, La.—Nearly two years ago, an errant spark inside a mill caused an explosion so big it destroyed all the building’s equipment
and blew a corrugated fiberglass wall 100 feet."

"It also shut down the sole domestic source of an explosive the Department of Defense
relies on to produce bullets, mortar shells, artillery rounds and Tomahawk missiles.
The product, for which there is no substitute, is used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives."

From the archive listing in post #1 by FReeper kiryandil from the Wall Street archive of 28 Apr 2023 :

“ ..Today that’s emerging as a gnawing problem for the U.S., whether in supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine
or in restocking reserves to prepare for a potential confrontation with China in the new era of great-power competition,
according to U.S. military officials, defense experts and congressional staffers. “

”After months of supplying Ukraine with Stingers, howitzers, anti-armor systems and artillery ammunition, stocks are low in both the U.S. and its NATO allies,
especially in 155mm howitzer shells, an ammunition that has been crucial to pushing back Russian forces. “

'“Can you imagine what would happen to these supply chains if the U.S. were in an actual state of active war, or NATO was?” said Jeff Rhoads,
executive director of the Purdue Institute for National Security, a defense-research institute at Purdue University.
“They could be in trouble very quickly.” “

(My Comment) : Ya think ?
Maybe they should learn to 'Prep' and "cache' ?

54 posted on 04/30/2023 7:37:50 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

55 posted on 04/30/2023 7:45:41 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: Pilsner
According to FM5-250:

Black Powder. Black powder is the oldest-known explosive and propellant. It is a composite of potassium or sodium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur. Time fuses, some igniters, and some detonators contain black powder.

There are drawings of "time fuse" and "safety fuse" that show black powder in the core. These types of fuses are not commonly used since the advent of pneumatic "shock tubes" where the detonator is inserted into a hand initiator and fired a distance from the explosives.

Later in the manual it states that black powder is too sensitive to shock to be considered a viable military explosive. It is also rendered useless by water or moisture; and, seals do not offer long term protection against moisture. It is considered unreliable and hazardous.

Still later in the manual it shows the construction of various detonators. The ignition charge is lead styphnate and barium chromate, followed by a lead azide booster. It turns out that black powder will not detonate military explosives.

But, what does the military know? The press has proven again and again to be the ultimate truth.

There is an Estes plant in Colorado that makes black powder.

56 posted on 04/30/2023 7:51:33 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt
F•ck Ukraine; re-stock our munitions.
57 posted on 04/30/2023 7:53:30 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Pilsner
To continue from Bev Fitchet's guns...

Most of the more recent primer formulations contain an initiator explosive compound called 'dinol', the chemical name of which is DDNP (diazodinitrophenol).

Other initiator explosives include:
dinitrodihydroxydiazobenzene salt (diazinate);
dinitrobenzofuroxan salts;
potassium dinitrobenzofuroxan;
various diazo, triazole, and tetrazaole compounds;
perchlorate or nitrate salts of metal complexes of ammonium, amine or hydrazine an example of which is 2-(5-cyanotetrazolato)pentaaminecobalt III perchlorate (CP).

Oxidizers include:
zinc oxide
potassium nitrate
strontium nitrate
zinc peroxide

Fuel components include:
amorphous boron
metal powders, such as aluminium, zirconium, titanium, nickel and zinc carbon
silicon
metal sulfides

So, yeah, my contention is that the "Danger, Will Robinson" level of excitement is plain crap.

58 posted on 04/30/2023 8:06:54 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Freedom4US

Good catch.


59 posted on 04/30/2023 8:13:08 AM PDT by Rappini (Hope means coming in second.)
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To: Freedom4US
Because they have a nasty habit of blowing up, as this one did. Again.

So do grain processing facilities, yet somehow they manage to build more of those and have perfected the designs to minimize risk. But you are correct... no one wants to live next door to an explosives factory.

60 posted on 04/30/2023 8:13:28 AM PDT by fireman15 (Irritating people are the grit from which we fashion our pearl. I provide the grit. You're Welcome.)
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