2025-12-11 | Story

That’s where American Rheinmetall Munitions, Inc. offers a distinct advantage. As part of Rheinmetall’s global ammunition enterprise – which has designed and delivered more than 46 munitions production facilities globally – American Rheinmetall Munitions brings to the U.S. a proven, ready-to-deploy blueprint for building, expanding, and modernizing important parts of the nation’s ammunition infrastructure. Backed by one of the world’s most capable and agile munitions providers, the company is positioned to apply Rheinmetall’s global experience to accelerate U.S. capacity with speed, skill, and confidence.

Modern conflict has exposed how quickly ammunition gets consumed. In Ukraine, both sides have fired artillery at a scale that dwarfs NATO’s planning assumptions. This has exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. surge capacity and elevated the need for proven, replicable solutions. The lag in output isn’t due to lack of effort. Instead, it stems from how capacity is built. Most major U.S. defense ammunition facilities in the U.S. are Government-Owned and Contractor-Operated (GOCO). This model provides necessary oversight and ensures accountability for public investment, but it also introduces challenges. Contractors must navigate strict authorization channels before initiating improvements or scaling operations. Even when urgency and funding are present, modernization efforts can be delayed by layered acquisition, contracting, and compliance processes. These checks are important, but they can slow execution unless paired with streamlined implementation pathways.

Understanding that the U.S. munitions production system is deliberate by design, Joe Chan, Senior Vice President of Business Development at American Rheinmetall Munitions, emphasizes that: 

Turning global experience into U.S. readiness

Rheinmetall has delivered numerous production facilities across allied nations, some of the most recent proceeding from concept to first output in just two to three years. It currently operates six energetic plants with modernization efforts ongoing at each – all running at scale. Recent examples include a significant expansion of production at Rheinmetall’s facility in Aschau, Germany; modernization of its nitrocellulose facility in Wimmis, Switzerland; and a new energetics plant under construction in Hungary, launched in response to NATO demand. In August of 2025, Rheinmetall unveiled a new artillery production facility in Unterlüß, which was built in just 15 months and now stands as Europe’s largest ammunition plant with about 33,000 square feet of space between two plants and capacity that can reach more than 300,000 artillery rounds of production per year.

These new facility designs and modernization efforts use replicable, proven Rheinmetall designs supported by internal expert engineering teams that streamline execution and reduce risks. These include layouts for energetics and artillery shell production, energy and emissions planning, environmental controls, and modular system configuration. It’s an approach that has scaled quickly across different geographies, and it’s one that American Rheinmetall Munitions can deploy in the U.S. for modernization projects or greenfield factory builds – rapidly creating new U.S. munitions industrial base capacity and resilience, delivered and sustained by an American workforce. 

An area of particular need in the current environment is the production of propellants. Today, the U.S. depends on a single plant in Canada to produce artillery propellants used in modular charge systems. American Rheinmetall Munitions is prepared to expand domestic capability based on proven designs already in use at Rheinmetall facilities abroad. Enabling domestic sourcing alongside the current international source reduces risk and builds resilience, and it can be achieved timely with limited risk.

American Rheinmetall Munitions is also exploring opportunities to support modernization of energetics manufacturing in the U.S., including the safe handling and scalable production of next-generation compounds. Its facility design and integration expertise are essential to delivering such a new capability at scale.

Built to respond, engineered to endure

As global threats grow and the pace of conflict accelerates, the ability to rapidly scale ammunition production is no longer optional – it’s essential. Rheinmetall has proven it can deliver under pressure, building, modernizing, expanding and operating high-output facilities across the globe. 

American Rheinmetall Munitions is working to apply this global experience to meet the specific demands of the U.S. defense industrial base. “In Europe and South Africa, we’ve had to design around real constraints, in many cases – limited power, unreliable infrastructure, even grid instability,” said Battagliese. “Those lessons are directly transferable, and we’re already thinking about how to apply them here in the U.S. – especially at older sites where the infrastructure may not support 24/7 surge operations without additional investment.”

Beyond the physical infrastructure delivery and operation, American Rheinmetall Munitions leverages Rheinmetall’s full-spectrum systems integration capabilities. “We’re designing entire ecosystems, including supply chain coordination, safety, environmental controls, automation and even digital manufacturing integration. That’s what we’ve delivered overseas, and it’s what we’re ready to bring to the U.S.,” Battagliese said.

Translating that model to the U.S. context means navigating complex permitting requirements, workforce expansion, and coordination across federal, state, and local agencies. American Rheinmetall Munitions is already moving ahead, conducting site assessments and building early stakeholder alignment strategies based on lessons from global deployments. 

Recent Army testimony before the House Armed Services Committee has highlighted the persistent barriers to expanding domestic munitions production, pointing to fragmented infrastructure, complex permitting, and long lead times for energetics production. These systemic challenges highlight the need for integrated, proven models like Rheinmetall’s. With its repeatable, field-tested approach, American Rheinmetall Munitions gives its customers a pathway to directly address these challenges, offering a faster, lower risk path forward.

Ready to execute

Meeting the U.S. military’s surge capacity needs will require stronger coordination between public and private entities. American Rheinmetall Munitions isn’t starting from scratch. It is standing upon an impressive foundation consisting of Rheinmetall’s successful design, development, and delivery of 46 munitions and energetics production facilities across the globe, including six owned and operated energetics facilities—all recently modernized, expanded, or newly constructed. With proven designs, experienced teams, and a clear blueprint, now is the time to act to achieve the vital improvements needed for the U.S. munitions defense industrial base, expand U.S. workforce opportunities, and deliver critically needed capabilities to U.S. Warfighters at scale.

Ultimately the future of U.S. ammunition readiness depends not just on investment, but on pursuing proven, smart solutions that reduce risk, and enable speedy action. American Rheinmetall Munitions is ready and positioned to do its part.