At a Steam-Age Arsenal, U.S. Army Forges Cannons for a Digital Era, War in Ukraine

Watervliet holds special status as a rare Army-operated industrial manufacturing facility, but that hasn’t always translated to funding. For years after the Cold War, the industrial operations faced cutbacks.

“Munitions are the bill-payer,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. The Pentagon adage, she said, refers to how budgeting for land armaments often gets cut to fund higher-profile programs.

Now the Pentagon is undertaking a multibillion-dollar modernization of its in-house production and maintenance bases. The program is part of a broader push to merge new technologies with older systems and apply modern production methods to legacy equipment.

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