The U.S. Army awarded a $435 million contract on Friday to build a TNT production plant in western Kentucky that will become the first domestic source for the explosive material in decades, officials said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a key player in securing the funding, said the new facility in his home state is part of a broader retooling of the U.S. defense industrial base that’s needed to deter adversaries abroad. Trinitrotoluene, or TNT, is used in artillery shells, bombs and grenades.
Establishing domestic production of TNT is vital for national defense, the Army said. The current supply chain for the crucial explosive material is entirely reliant on overseas sources, it said.
Hope it’s not near my house
Didnt Kentucky just blow up a factory just this week, Mitch is trying to up those employee death numbers. Good thing the south is trying to get those children workers laws.
Where is the TNT produced now?
And in unrelated news, how much security is this facility gonna staff, cause things are feeling dicey.
The current supply chain for the crucial explosive material is entirely reliant on overseas sources, it said.
Yup, very vague. Probably not UK or France. Mexico maybe?
I understand the move, and from a defense logistics POV it is entirely reasonable to do this, I just wanna know a bit more about what precipitated this reconsideration of the supply chain.
Would they say “overseas” if it were Mexico (or anywhere else in NA)? Honest question…
Sometimes? Its somewhat analagous to “foreign”. At least in my circles.
Some Googling doesn’t yield great answers but looks like Poland, Australia, India are the main ones supplying the USA. China makes a lot for itself too.
For mining… Right?
I’m sure some of it will be used in mines
I don’t think that the military uses much TNT directly, but military explosives may be derived from TNT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT
Yeah, there’s a list under “Applications”.
Composition B, for example, is a mix of TBT and other stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_B
Composition B (Comp B), also known as Hexotol and Hexolite (among others), is a high explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades, and various other munitions.[1
Trinitrotoluene, or TNT, is used in artillery shells, bombs and grenades.
I don’t think the army operates a lot of mines
Landmines
