Fiasco in the Factory: Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing

ProPublica ^ | 8/12/26 | Jesse Coburn

[EnderWiggin1970]

Reporting Highlights

Ready, Fire, Aim: In a rushed process exempted from normal rules, the Army hired General Dynamics, which brought on a Turkish subcontractor with little vetting, to make artillery shells.

Money for Nothing: Despite being paid $533 million, General Dynamics did not produce a single usable shell at its new factory — and has not been held publicly accountable.

Wages of Failure: Since the Army halted two production lines at the factory, the General Dynamics unit responsible for the debacle has received contract awards totaling $2.5 billion.

A robot was on fire. Again.

It was the summer of 2024, and the cutting-edge robots inside General Dynamics’ sweltering artillery factory near Dallas were catching fire with startling regularity, according to four former workers there. This wasn’t ideal, as the plant was supposed to be churning out urgently needed artillery shells for Ukraine. The robots, giant metal arms with clamps for hands, would end up drenched in oil, which would then — no surprise — combust as they moved steel blocks heated to 1,800 degrees into and out of a machine that periodically erupted columns of fire. One blaze that summer melted a robot’s cables, putting it out of commission for a week.

---

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Ukraine
KEYWORDS: businessisgood; complex; corruption; industrial; mic; military; shells; turkey; warisbusiness; yookraine

[EnderWiggin1970]

Trump is pushing for a massive 44% increase in military funding, but I'm very skeptical we will get our money's worth. The military-industrial complex (MIC) is as corrupt and dysfunctional as leftist grifter organizations, and for much of the same reasons. Who will clean up the mess? We need a DOGE for the MIC.

[Sequoyah101]

It would not take anyone very smart to make a big change. All it requires is to look and to be ruthless.

Screwing up is easy and frequent when the money is not yours. The gooberment and their employees and contractors do that a whole lot.

[NoLibZone]

Everyone involved in that should be brought up on charges of treason

[House Atreides]

“… Army hired General Dynamics, which brought on a Turkish subcontractor with little vetting, to make artillery shells.…”
******************************************************

Turkish subcontractor? WTH? Who will be held responsible for this FIASCO?

[Repeal The 17th]

“Mechanical Arms” (not “robots”) have been in use
on production assembly lines for over 50 years.
Someone did not know what they were doing.

[ansel12]

I read this a few days ago, it is an extraordinary tale and the administration and Hegseth better take dramatic action with prison sentences and lawsuits.

[Paal Gulli]

The machine press in the GIF in the story has a label reading “REPKON” on it, a Turkish company since renamed to “Paligen Technologies,” which has a website trying desperately to look American.

https://paligentech.com/about-us/#whoweare

[balch3]

Probublica is a leftist rag. I’m skeptical any of this happened.

[Alberta's Child]

Not sure why this is a big deal.

Everyone knows that malfunctioning hardware, enormous cost overruns, and delayed delivery are actually important elements of the business model for the defense contractors who buy and own members of Congress.

[beekay]

Since the robots were catching fire in 2024, this looks like another debacle by a Democrat administration.

[Leaning Right]

I am amazed by this story. And not in a good way. It’s not that much different from the stories about those child care centers that took care of no children.

Doesn’t the government employ any on-site inspectors?

[EnderWiggin1970]

The one thing that key decision-makers appear to agree on is that they are absolutely not to blame. Gezen, the former General Dynamics executive, told ProPublica that the company and the Army did nothing wrong. In a brief conversation at his apartment door in a ritzy section of Washington, D.C., in May, Gezen maintained his sunny optimism. The Repkon equipment was a good option, and it may still be a good option, he said, holding an iced coffee in one hand and restraining a large dog with his other. In any case, he added, “it was the fastest option available.”

Fastest option. Gezen pitched this plan in fall of 2022, just shy of 4 years ago. If this had happened immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we'd have nuked Japan and ended the war, and this factory would still have not produced its first shell.

[EnderWiggin1970]

Probublica is a leftist rag. I’m skeptical any of this happened.

Facts are facts. Here's another article from The War Zone a month ago.

New $500M Artillery Shell Plant Failed To Produce Any 155mm Parts

And here's one from the New American:

Taxpayers Spent More Than $500 Million for General Dynamics’ Nonfunctioning Artillery Factory

The New American is a John Birch Society far-right publication. So you have sources all across the spectrum reporting the same thing.

[whitney69]

“All it requires is to look and to be ruthless.”

The liberals (socialists) are still hammering Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for doing exactly that with government. Musk even went from a beloved voting and donating democrat to an arch villian with them. Sour grapes.

wy69

[Bob434]

and taxpayers paid for a LEARING center that taught nothing (except maybe how to scam the gov.)

[WashingtonSource]

Pro Publica is a leftist organization. Take everything in this article with a grain of salt.

[EnderWiggin1970]

See post 13

[PeterPrinciple]

https://investigativepost.org/2026/08/13/this-533-million-artillery-factory-made-nothing/

---

In six years running General Dynamics’ Ordnance and Tactical Systems business, Gezen had earned a reputation as a deft strategist and salesman. At 50, he wasn’t an engineer, and he had no experience running factories. He had spent decades working on the financial side of the weapons business. With a ready smile and a delivery as smooth as his perfectly bald head, he knew how to woo corporate leaders and Pentagon arms buyers alike.

Gezen was also shrewd. In 2020, after the Army sought to diversify its artillery supplier base by contracting with a small Pennsylvania company, Gezen swooped in and bought that company. That allowed General Dynamics to maintain its stranglehold over the production of metal bodies for the standard American artillery shell, referred to by its caliber: 155 mm. “Firat throws his arm around you and talks to you nicely,” one former Army official said. “But he’s got, like, five things that he’s the sole provider of, and it’s exclusive. He’s got you locked up forever.”

.....

But the Army did not unilaterally terminate the contract awards. “A termination for default would’ve taken years through the legal system, because General Dynamics wasn’t going to accept that,” a former Army official told ProPublica. “Nobody wins except the lawyers.”

....

Two months ago, General Dynamics made an announcement that conjured a sense of déjà vu. To fix the problems at the factory, the company would team up with yet another unheard-of partner promising technological innovation. The solution this time? Artificial intelligence.

.....

The United States still is not close to producing the promised 100,000 shells per month, a former Army official told ProPublica in June, although other investments to increase 155 mm production have turned out better. Ukraine still needs those shells, the official said, but attention has once again shifted. In the Middle East, it’s other munitions that the Trump administration has rapidly burned through during its war with Iran. Trump officials are now calling for ramping up production in those areas — and fast.

“Conventional ammo is back on the back burner,” the official said. “Everything now is about interceptors, missiles.”

General Dynamics makes components for those too.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

This is insanity. Hold whoever designed that garbage responsible and put him/her in prison. Fix it, and move on. Arrrrgh!

[sit-rep]

Patience!! Building Concrete cases takes time!! Especially in DC!! Getting a Grand Jury to Indict is next to impossible!!

Remember that from a year ago!??