SCRANTON, Pa. — Secretary of the U.S. Army Christine Wormuth visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant.
The plant has produced ammunition for the Department of Defense since the early 1950s, and on Monday, Secretary Wormuth had the opportunity to see the process and speak with employees.
Secretary Wormuth said the United States has shipped about one million rounds of 155-millimeter shells to Ukraine to help them in the war against Russia.
"I think one of the employee's supervisors that I talked to said it best. He said we are manufacturing freedom here at the Scranton arsenal," said Christine Wormuth, Secretary of the U.S. Army.
Secretary Wormuth was also joined by Senator Bob Casey to announce more than $243 million for the plant to upgrade machinery as well as create about 30 jobs over the next couple years.
"A lot of the machines that are currently in the plant date back to sort of the 50s and 60s, so buying new equipment that can, you know, produce more shells at a higher rate that have, you know, even better safety, although I would just say I was very impressed with the emphasis on safety that I saw and heard from about the workforce," said Secretary Wormuth.
"These are the kinds of jobs in any community would want their high-quality jobs where you're producing something that's connected to our security, in this case, that the fight against Vladimir Putin," said U.S. Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania.
Secretary Wormuth said replenishing stockpiles of field artillery is very important because the Department of Defense has learned a lot about Ukraine's battle with Russia.
"We are seeing the scale of warfare in a much larger way, and that's going to require more munitions. So the kind of work we're doing right now with the defense industrial base. I think we need to really continue to press because we see that we're going to have to have bigger stockpile," said Secretary Wormuth.
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