This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2020) |
Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA) in Crane, Indiana produces and provides conventional munitions requirements in support of United States Army and Joint Force readiness. It is one of 17 installations of the Joint Munitions Command and one of 23 organic industrial bases under the U.S. Army Materiel Command, which include arsenals, depots, activities and ammunition plants. Established in October 1977, it is located on Naval Support Activity Crane. [1]
Capabilities of the center include: munitions and manufacturing; demilitarization; munitions and munitions-related maintenance and renovation; remote operations and environmental testing; logistics support; machine shop; chemical laboratory; and engineering.
Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA) was established on October 1, 1977, when the Army was designated as the single manager for conventional ammunition for the Department of Defense. CAAA inherited a legacy mission of conventional ammunition manufacturing, storage and depot operations from what had previously been known as Naval Ammunition Depot, Crane, born in 1941 when the Navy needed an inland munitions depot during World War II.
CAAA became one of two major tenants on Naval Support Activity (NSA) Crane, eventually employing more than 700 employees and occupying 51,220 acres of land and 4.8 million square feet in buildings on the base. CAAA’s manufacturing product lines grew to include countermeasure decoy flares, mortar and artillery illumination, signals and markers, loading assembly and packing of medium caliber munitions, Navy gun ammunition, Air Force and Navy bomb maintenance, explosive melt/pour and press load operations. CAAA also remained focused on its logistical mission set, storing and distributing approximately 25% of the DoD’s conventional munitions valued at $9.8 billion, making it one of the largest ammunition depots in the DoD. On October 1, 1999, command and control of the Letterkenny Munitions Center (LEMC) in Chambersburg, PA, transferred to CAAA where it was aligned as a directorate in CAAA's organizational structure. CAAA’s commander was also given responsibility for oversight of the Iowa and Milan Army Ammunition Plants.
Col. Franyate Taylor became the 21st commander of Crane Army Ammunition Activity during a change of command ceremony on July 20, 2023.
The facilities at CAAA include more than 200 production buildings, a 72,000-square-foot (6,700 m2) machine shop, roughly 1,800 storage buildings for both explosive and inert ammunition with a total capacity of 4,800,000 square feet (450,000 m2), an 80-acre (320,000 m2) demolition range and 40 acres (160,000 m2) of ammunition burning grounds.
Renovation Ordnance and pyrotechnic renovation work is accomplished in any number of flexible manufacturing units. Remote defusing and refusing capabilities are available for a variety of items. Propellant charge renovation is accomplished in multiple facilities configured with powder lofts. Exterior maintenance is performed on ordnance and ordnance-related items such as containers, metal pallets, and wire cages using grit blasting, high pressure water cutting, degreasing, and painting. Crane also renovates a variety of bombs.
Production Pyrotechnics: Crane produces pyrotechnic devices including signal, smoke, illuminating projectiles, marine location markers, and infrared flares for illumination in conjunction with night vision devices. Crane has produced a variety of aircraft decoy flares.
Cast Load: Crane has the ability to produce cast loaded explosives utilizing various production lines with mixing, melting, and holding kettles. We have the capability to produce bombs, mines, shock test charges, demolition charges, shape charges, burster tubes, underwater sound signals, cluster bombs and projectiles.
Machining Center: Crane’s machine shop is equipped with computer numerical control (CNC) machines (mills, lathes, laser fabrication center, wire electrical discharge machine, waterjet, etc.) for a wide variety of materials including tough alloys and metals. Cleaning and finishing processes include chemical cleaning, ultrasonic cleaner, turbo washer, plating titration, atomic absorption, powder coating, statistical process control and workstation automated data collectors.
Logistics Shipping/Receiving: Crane receives, stores and ships a wide variety of conventional ammunition and munitions in support of worldwide operations.
Logistics Facilities: Crane supports its magazines with both rail and truck access, blocking and bracing services and modern containerization facilities. Crane directly supports various units by receiving, storing and shipping their ammunition basic load as required.
Preconfigured Containers: Crane containerizes preconfigured ammunition loads that are delivered directly to troops on the ground, to ships afloat or to prepositioned stocks.
Demilitarization
Disposal: Crane utilizes a wide variety of methods including automated high pressure washout, breakdown, steam-out, permitted open burning and open detonation, contained detonation, water-jet and white phosphorus to phosphoric acid conversion.
Recycling: Crane has the facilities and capability to recycle various materials from a wide variety of ammunition and munitions.
CAAA will gain the detonator, relays and delays workload from Kansas Army Ammunition Plant. It also gained the demolition charges workload from Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant. Both of these facilities were closed due to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC 2005). CAAA will also gain the ammunition demilitarization function from Sierra Army Depot which was another depot realigned by BRAC 2005.
Hawthorne Army Depot (HWAD) is a U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command ammunition storage depot located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake. The depot covers 147,000 acres (59,000 ha) or 226 sq. mi. and has 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) storage space in 2,427 bunkers. HWAD is the "World's Largest Depot". It is divided into three ammunition storage and production areas, plus an industrial area housing command headquarters, facilities, engineering shops, etc.
Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) is a United States Army Joint Munitions Command post in Tooele County, Utah. It serves as a storage site for war reserve and training ammunition. The depot stores, issues, receives, renovates, modifies, maintains and demilitarizes conventional munitions. The depot also serves as the National Inventory Control Point for ammunition-peculiar equipment, developing, fabricating, modifying, storing and distributing such equipment to all services and other customers worldwide. TEAD provides base support to Deseret Chemical Depot.
Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) is a U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command storage facility for conventional munitions and chemical weapons. The facility is located in east central Kentucky, southeast of the cities of Lexington and Richmond, Kentucky. The 14,494-acre (58.66 km2) site, composed mainly of open fields and wooded areas, is used for munitions storage, repair of general supplies, and the disposal of munitions. The installation is used for the storage of conventional explosive munitions as well as assembled chemical weapons. The depot primarily is involved in industrial and related activities associated with the storage and maintenance of conventional and chemical munitions.
The Picatinny Arsenal is an American military research and manufacturing facility located on 6,400 acres (26 km2) of land in Jefferson and Rockaway Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, encompassing Picatinny Lake and Lake Denmark. The Arsenal is the headquarters of the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center. It is known for developing the ubiquitous Picatinny rail, as well as being the Army's center of expertise for small arms cartridge ammunition.
Letterkenny Army Depot, the Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence (CITE) for Air Defense and Tactical Missile Systems, was established in early 1942. Its leadership began recruiting civilian personnel in July 1942.
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army combat units with weapons and ammunition, including at times their procurement and maintenance. Along with the Quartermaster Corps and Transportation Corps, it forms a critical component of the U.S. Army logistics system.
Caerwent Training Area is a British military installation at Caerwent, Monmouthshire, Wales. The large military site is situated north of the A48 road about 5 mi (8.0 km) west of Chepstow and 12 miles (19 km) east of Newport.
Operation Red Hat was a United States Department of Defense movement of chemical warfare munitions from Okinawa, Japan to Johnston Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, which occurred in 1971.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division is the principal tenant command located at Naval Support Activity Crane in Indiana.
The Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Munitions and Search Training Regiment is an element of the Royal School of Military Engineering responsible for the provision of training to British Army Ammunition Technicians, Ammunition Technical Officers and Search Operators. The Regiment provides training from two locations: Marlborough Barracks, MoD Kineton near Kineton, Warwickshire and St George's Barracks, MoD Bicester, near Bicester, Oxfordshire.
The U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the primary provider of materiel to the United States Army. The Command's mission includes the management of installations, as well as maintenance and parts distribution. It was established on 8 May 1962 and was activated on 1 August of that year as a major field command of the U.S. Army. Lieutenant General Frank S. Besson, Jr., who directed the implementation of the Department of Army study that recommended creation of a "materiel development and logistics command", served as its first commander.
The Joint Munitions Command (JMC) is the latest in a series of commands since World War II that have managed the ammunition plants of the United States. Since 1973, those commands have been headquartered on Rock Island Arsenal. Brigadier General Gavin J. Gardner commands the JMC. The headquarters on Rock Island Arsenal is responsible for munitions production and storage (depots) facilities in 16 states. JMC employs 20 military, over 5800 civilians and 8300 contractor personnel. Of these approximately 14,000 personnel, more than 650 work in the headquarters on Rock Island Arsenal. JMC has an annual budget of 1.2 billion dollars.
The Anniston Defense Munitions Center (ADMC) located at Anniston Army Depot in Bynum, Alabama, is a multi-functional ammunition facility under the US Army Joint Munitions Command.. The primary mission is receipt, storage, surveillance and shipment of missiles and conventional ammunition. The ADMC is the site of the Department of Army’s only Missile Recycling Center and is one of the Army’s premium ammunition storage sites because it is capable of storing some of the Army’s largest munitions.
Letterkenny Munitions Center, located on Letterkenny Army Depot in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, is a satellite activity under Crane Army Ammunition Activity in Crane, Indiana. The center maintains, stores, and demilitarizes tactical missiles and conventional ammunition for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. LEMC assembles, disassembles, and tests missiles and missile sections. It is also responsible for every aspect of conventional ammunition and missiles, including demilitarization, renovation and X-ray. The facility is part of the US Army Joint Munitions Command.
Milan Army Ammunition Plant (MLAAP) was an ammunition plant of the United States Army Joint Munitions Command near Milan, Tennessee and about 23 miles (37 km) north of Jackson, Tennessee.
Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RFAAP) is an ammunition manufacturing complex for the U.S. military with facilities located in Pulaski and Montgomery Counties, Virginia. The primary mission of the RFAAP is to manufacture propellants and explosives in support of field artillery, air defense, tank, missile, aircraft, and naval weapons systems. As of 2011 RFAAP is operated by BAE Systems under contract to the US Army Joint Munitions Command. The current Commander for the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP) is Lt. Col. Adrien G. Humphreys.
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) is a weapons manufacturing facility for the United States Department of Defense in McAlester, Oklahoma, US. The facility is part of the US Army Joint Munitions Command. Its mission is to produce and renovate conventional ammunition and ammunition related components. The plant stores war reserve and training ammunition. McAlester performs manufacturing, industrial engineering, and production product assurance. The plant also receives, demilitarizes, and disposes of conventional ammunition components. The plant is the largest, in terms of storage, housing close to one-third of the Department of Defense's munitions stockpile.
The Defense Ammunition Center (DAC) is the United States Department of Defense’s focal point for ammunition knowledge and logistical support. It is responsible for explosives safety, logistics engineering, transportability, training, depot/garrison doctrine, demilitarization technology, supportability, reliability, technical assistance and career management. DAC also supports all aspects of ammunition operations and activities from development through disposal. The center is part of the US Army Joint Munitions Command.
The 267th Chemical Company was a military unit of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps responsible for the surety of chemical warfare agents dubbed "RED HAT" deployed to the Islands of Okinawa, Japan and subsequently Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. A recently discovered Army document reveals that the true mission of the 267th Chemical Company was the operation of the Okinawa deployment site as part Project 112. Project 112 was a 1960s biological warfare field test program that was conducted by the Deseret Test Center. Okinawa is not listed as a test site under Project 112 by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Camp Stanley is a U.S. Army facility located at the Leon Springs Military Reservation, the present day Camp Stanley Storage Activity, twenty miles northwest of downtown San Antonio near Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas. Its mission is to Camp Stanley Storage Activity (CSSA) receives, tests, stores, ships, renovates and demilitarizes conventional arms, ammunition, and explosives in support of the Warfighter worldwide.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army