Artillery made in Midwest is used for genocide in Gaza

By Christopher Overfelt

Note: This is Issue 3 in the Midwest Weapons Report, by Christopher Overfelt. He calls the Midwest the backbone of weapons manufacturing and storage for the American Empire. He concludes: “Those who determine American foreign policy have chosen unending, catastrophic warfare, and they expect us in the Midwest to follow along in compliance by providing our labor, our taxes, our sons and daughters, our silence, and our unwillingness to defy violent abusive power.”  Issue 3 covers the 155mm artillery round, the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, and the Midwest roadmap to genocide.

• The 155mm artillery round is 2.5 feet long and weighs 100 lbs. It is fired from a howitzer cannon, which can be towed or self-propelled, resembling a tank with its long barrel mounted atop mechanized tracks. The facilities producing the 155mm artillery round are divided into forging and production facilities and load and pack (LAP) facilities. The primary contractor forging the 155mm metal outer shells or casings is General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc., while the primary contractor providing the load and pack services is Day and Zimmerman through its subsidiary American Ordnance, LLC. Production facilities can encompass forging processes, taking raw materials and producing the shells, production of the propelling charge cartridge cases, or LAP facilities (Load and Pack) which only encompass gathering materials and assembling the completed munitions. These separate facilities, and the two primary contractors GD-OTS and American Ordnance, LLC, all work in conjunction to produce the complete the 155mm artillery round.
• The 155mm artillery round has been a primary munition used in the American Empire’s genocide of Gaza. Shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, tens of thousands of these artillery rounds were expedited to occupied Palestine for use in the Empire’s genocide. In anticipation of future worldwide wars, the United States has rapidly increased its manufacturing capabilities of the 155mm artillery round in the last two years. The U.S. Army awarded contracts worth $1.5 billion in the last two weeks of September 2023 to increase artillery round production capacity. New locations for processing these munitions have been established in Mesquite, TX, Parsons, KS, Niceville, FL, and Westerville, OH. These new processing sites have been set up within the last two years to supplement the already established processing and manufacturing sites for the 155mm round in Scranton, PA, Lonestar, TX, and Middletown, IA. Production is slated to increase to 100,000 rounds produced per month in the US, up from only 10,000 per month previous to 2023.
• Forging Processes – A majority of the outer shells for 155mm artillery rounds are produced by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, PA, and at the GD-OTS plant in Mesquite, TX. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, operated by GD-OTS, has produced the 155mm artillery shell for several decades now, and the plant has been expanded in the last two years to increase its production to approximately 36,000 shells per month. The contract for GD-OTS’ production at the Scranton facility can be seen at: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_W15QKN19D0084_9700
• The General Dynamics-OTS plant in Mesquite, TX, completed construction in 2024 and began forging 155mm artillery shells on May 29, 2024, in anticipation of greater demand for the artillery round in wider world wars. Mesquite, TX, is an eastern suburb of Dallas, TX. The 440,000-plus-square-foot manufacturing and warehousing facility sits indiscreetly in an industrial park near the intersection of I-635 and U.S. Highway 80 and employs more than 350 workers. The address of the GD-OTS plant in Mesquite is 19750 Lyndon B. Johnson Fwy., Mesquite, TX 75150. The 155mm munitions plant is only a half hour south of the GD-OTS MK-80 bomb series plant in Garland, TX, making the suburbs of Dallas, TX, the heart of the Empire’s genocide in Gaza. Both of General Dynamics’ munitions plants in Dallas are entrenched indiscreetly among suburban houses and neighborhoods, directly endangering the lives of those who live around them as they could be prime military targets. The Mesquite plant forges 30,000 155mm artillery shells per month. The plant was constructed rapidly to accommodate the increased demand for artillery shells used by the empire in Ukraine, Lebanon, and Gaza. The DOD contract for GD-OTS to forge new artillery shells in Mesquite, TX. can be viewed at: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_W15QKN24D0037_9700
• These two GD-OTS forging facilities work in direct coordination with the load and pack facility at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, operated by American Ordnance, LLC, in Middletown, IA. American Ordnance, LLC, is a division of and is owned by Day and Zimmerman, Inc. Middletown, IA, is located in southeast Iowa, right next to the Mississippi River along the Illinois and Missouri borders. While the GD-OTS facilities in Mesquite and Scranton forge the outer shells, IAAAP (Iowa Army Ammunition Plant) gathers together the various parts of the 155mm artillery round and assembles them into the final product. Each artillery round is assembled from components manufactured across the country, including the projectile or case, bulk energetics, propellant, primer and a fuze. The 19,011-acre Iowa Army Ammunition Plant is located at 17571 DMC Highway 79, Middletown, IA 52638, just 8 miles west of Burlington, IA. It contains 767 buildings, 271 igloos and a storage capacity of 1,100,775 square feet. It also has 143 miles of roads and 102 miles of railroads. The DOD contract for American Ordnance, LLC to  load, assemble, and pack the 155mm artillery round at IAAAP can be seen at: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_W519TC24F0399_9700_W519TC23D0014_9700
• General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc. also operates a Load and Pack facilities in Camden and Hampton, AK, for 155mm propelling charges. The propelling charges are explosive cartridges that provide the force to propel the 155mm shell out of its cannon and to its intended target. The addresses of GD-OTS’ Camden and Hampton munitions facilities are 6258 Spellman Rd, Camden, AR 71701 and 6345 AR 203 Highway, Hampton, AR. Camden and Hampton, AR, adjoin one another in southern Arkansas and are home to a munitions industrial park that houses the munitions making facilities of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Armtec, and more. The area is thousands of acres in size and contains hundreds of storage facilities for explosive munitions.  
• The rapid expansion of the production of the 155mm artillery round has extended into Kansas, as well. Day and Zimmerman, Kansas, LLC, a division of Day and Zimmerman which owns American Ordnance, LLC, operates a munitions plant in Parsons, KS, at the now closed Kansas Army Ammunition Plant. The Day and Zimmerman munitions plant is located at 23102 Rush Rd., Parsons, KS 67357. The plant currently acts as a Load and Pack facility for 60mm, 81mm, and 120mm artillery round explosive cartridges. You can view Day and Zimmerman’s contract to Load and Pack these cartridges at the Parsons plant at: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_W52P1J22D0031_9700
• In February of 2023, American Ordnance, LLC, was given a contract to set up a Load and Pack facility at the Day and Zimmerman, Kansas, LLC, Parsons plant for the 155mm artillery round. This 155mm Load and Pack facility will supplement the already established 60mm, 81mm, and 120mm Load and Pack lines at the plant. The contract to establish this new facility can be viewed here: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_W519TC23F0107_9700_W519TC23D0014_9700
• According to an Army.mil website article, the U.S. Army awarded contracts worth $1.5 billion in the last two weeks of September 2023 to increase production capacity and inventory of 155-mm artillery munitions. The awards resourced each major component, material or required production process to maintain momentum for the goal of 80,000 projectiles per month by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. The awards procure 14.2 million pounds of bulk energetics (TNT and IMX-104), 270,000 primers, 678,000 fuses, 2.7 million Modular Artillery Charge System combustible cartridge cases, load assemble and pack of 1.6 million MACS propellant increments, and load assemble and pack of 451,000 M795/M1128 projectiles. The contracts were awarded by Army Contracting Centers in Rock Island, IL, and Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, to domestic companies in Tennessee (BAE Ordnance Systems Inc. and Security Signals Inc.), Pennsylvania (Action Manufacturing Co.), Arkansas (General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, and Day & Zimmerman), Iowa (American Ordnance LLC), and California (Armtec). Awards for work in international locations included Poland (NitroChem S.A.), India (Solar Industries India Limited), and Canada (IMT Defence).

• Caterpillar D9 – Caterpillar Inc. manufactures construction equipment that is crucial to the facilitation of the Empire’s genocide in Gaza. The Caterpillar D9 bulldozer is used by the Empire in Gaza to raze civilian infrastructure and make it uninhabitable in order to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land. The D9 bulldozer resembles a tank with its mechanized tracks, a grader blade mounted in the front, and two or three subsoil rippers mounted in the back. As a total unit, it weighs almost 100,000 lbs. The empire adds metal plated armor and turreted guns to the D9 for their use in Gaza. The contract under which Caterpillar Inc. builds the D9 bulldozer for the US government can be viewed here: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_SPE8EC23D0002_9700. On Feb. 28, 2025, the US State Department announced a $295 million dollar sale of D9 construction equipment to Israel, with deliveries set to start in 2027.
• While Caterpillar Inc. is headquartered in the suburbs of Dallas in Irving, TX, 5205 N O’Connor Blvd., Ste. 100, Irving, TX 75039, the manufacturing plant at which it builds the D9 bulldozer is located in East Peoria, IL, at Building SS, Tractor Drive, East Peoria, IL 61611. Building SS is one of four large manufacturing buildings at the Caterpillar East Peoria, IL, site. The site is directly adjacent to the Illinois River in central Illinois, equidistant north and south from St. Louis and Chicago.

• The Midwest roadmap to genocide – So far, the first three issues of the Midwest Weapons Report have covered the manufacture and production of the MK 80 bomb series, the JDAM tail guidance kits, the Small Diameter Bomb, the 155mm Artillery Round, and the Caterpillar D9 Bulldozer. Together, these weapons platforms have been used by the American Empire to murder over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza from Oct. 2023 to now in May of 2025. These weapons have been used to commit war crimes according to the Geneva Convention of 1948 and the Rome Statute of 1998. All of us in the Midwest United States are guilty of these crimes as we fund the use of these weapons and we house their production and storage in our communities.
• The following roadmap can serve to visualize the production of these weapons of mass industrial death in our communities and how they are then sent abroad to be used across the world. You can also view the map online here: Bing Maps
• The road map begins in Dallas, TX. The suburbs of Dallas are home to two manufacturing plants owned by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc. Location A is 19750 Lyndon B. Johnson Fwy., Mesquite, TX 75150. This is the site where General Dynamics forges the outer shells of the 155mm artillery round.    
• Location B is just a 20-minute drive up 635 North to 1200 N. Glenbrook Dr., Garland TX 75040. This is the site where General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc., forges the bomb bodies for the MK 80 bomb series.
• Location C is then a 2 and ½ hour drive north to 1 C Tree Rd., McAlester, OK 74501. The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant serves as the facility where the MK 80 bombs are filled with explosives and are stored until they are shipped abroad.
• Location D takes us four and a half hours east to 6258 Spellman Rd., Camden, AR 71701. Here, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc., manufactures the M231 propelling charges that are used to fire the 155mm artillery round from its cannon.
• Location E is seven hours north to Boeing Building 598, 2600 N. Highway 94, St. Charles, MO 63301. Both the JDAM tail kit, which is attached to the MK 80 bomb bodies to provide GPS guidance, and the Small Diameter Bomb are manufactured by Boeing at this site.
• Location F is two hours and forty minutes north to Caterpillar Building SS, 100 Tractor Dr, East Peoria, Il 61630 where the D9 Bulldozer is manufactured.
• Location G is two hours west to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, 17571 Dmc Highway 79, Middletown, IA 52638. The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant is operated by American Ordnance, LLC and serves as the facility where the 155mm artillery rounds are filled with explosives and stored before being shipped abroad.
• The final stop is 23102 Rush Road, Parsons, KS 67357, where American Ordnance LLC has been awarded a DOD contract to set up a Load and Pack facility for the 155mm artillery round at what used to be the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant.

• This concludes Issue 3 of the Midwest Weapons Report. As evidenced above, the Midwest US is the backbone of weapons manufacturing and weapons storage for the American Empire. The Empire is actively expanding existing weapons manufacturing locations in the Midwest while also building new manufacturing facilities. Those who determine American foreign policy have chosen unending, catastrophic warfare, and they expect us in the Midwest to follow along in compliance by providing our labor, our taxes, our sons and daughters, our silence, and our unwillingness to defy violent abusive power.  

—Christopher Overfelt, a member of the Kansas City-area Veterans for Peace, serves on the Board of PeaceWorks KC. You can e-mail a request to midwestweaponsreport@proton.me for any of the 3 issues of the Midwest Weapons Report. © 2025, Christopher Overfelt, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International License. We ask you to join us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/pwkc.org.