A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell can hold a tracer.
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.
A magazine is an item or place within which ammunition or other explosive material is stored. The word is taken originally from the Arabic word makhāzin (مخازن), meaning "storehouses", via Italian and Middle French.
Naval Weapons Station Earle is a United States Navy base in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Its distinguishing feature is a 2.9-mile (4.7 km) pier in Sandy Hook Bay where ammunition can be loaded and unloaded from warships at a safe distance from heavily populated areas.
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.
A live fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance is used, as opposed to blanks or dummies. The term can also be found in non-military usage.
The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11 am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest on UK soil.
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.
Priddy's Hard is a former military installation in Gosport, England named for the original landowner and the firm beach found there. The site originated as a 1750s fort, and then became an armaments depot for Royal Navy and British Army weapons, explosives and other stores. The site was decommissioned in 1988, after over two hundred years of operation, with part now being developed for housing and an area retained as a museum.
Explosives safety originated as a formal program in the United States in the aftermath of World War I when several ammunition storage areas were destroyed in a series of mishaps. The most serious occurred at Picatinny Arsenal Ammunition Storage Depot, New Jersey, in July, 1926 when an electrical storm led to fires that caused explosions and widespread destruction. The severe property damage and 19 fatalities led Congress to empower a board of Army and Naval officers to investigate the Picatinny Arsenal disaster and determine if similar conditions existed at other ammunition depots. The board reported in its findings that this mishap could recur, prompting Congress to establish a permanent board of colonels to develop explosives safety standards and ensure compliance beginning in 1928. This organization evolved into the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB) and is chartered in Title 10 of the US Code. The DDESB authors Defense Explosives Safety Regulation (DESR) 6055.9 which establishes the explosives safety standards for the Department of Defense. The DDESB also evaluates scientific data which may adjust those standards, reviews and approves all explosives site plans for new construction, and conducts worldwide visits to locations containing US title munitions. The cardinal principle of explosives safety is expose the minimum number of people for the minimum time to the minimum amount of explosives.
The logistics organisations of the Royal Air Force in World War II were No. 42 Group RAF and RAF Maintenance Command.
Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target.
A Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) is an armament depot dedicated to supplying the Royal Navy. They were sister depots of Royal Naval Cordite Factories, Royal Naval Torpedo and Royal Naval Mine Depots. The only current RNAD is RNAD Coulport, which is the UK Strategic Weapon Facility for the nuclear-armed Trident Missile System; with many others being retained as tri-service 'Defence Munitions' sites.
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.
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 LTC Russell A. Jones.
Pueblo Depot Activity(PUDA), formerly known as the Pueblo Ordnance Depot and the Pueblo Army Depot, was a U.S. Army ammunition storage and supply facility. Responsibility for the depot fell upon the United States Army Ordnance Corps, and the first civilians were hired in 1942 as operations began. The mission quickly expanded to include general supplies as well. It is a 24,202-acre (97.94 km2) site located 14 miles (23 km) east of Pueblo, Colorado at 38°19′37.07″N104°20′22.4″W. In 1945 they began to receive mass amounts of equipment returning from the combat theaters of World War II. Therefore, the mission expanded yet again to include the maintenance and refurbishing of artillery, fire control, and optical material. In 1951 the depot assumed responsibility to distribute U.S. Air Force ammunition for an eight-state area, as well as storage of strategic and critical materials for the General Services Administration (GSA). They were also tasked to rebuild and provide on-site maintenance support for guided missiles, ensure calibration and maintenance of electronic test equipment and radio-controlled aerial targets. They would also provide specialized training for new Army equipment as needed. In 1952, Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, Colorado transferred chemical agents and chemical munitions to Pueblo Army Depot for secure storage. In 1974 Pueblo Army Depot was redesignated as Pueblo Depot Activity.
Defence Munitions Gosport is a defence munitions site situated on the southwestern shores of Portsmouth harbour, southeast of Fareham in Hampshire, England. The site occupies about 470 acres. Its facilities include two Integrated Weapon Complexes (IWCs), 24 processing rooms and 26 explosives stores. The site employs some 270 staff.
The Defence Armament Depot, named the Kauri Point Armament Depot until 2010, is a New Zealand Defence Force munitions storage facility in the Auckland suburb of Chatswood which was originally built for the Royal New Zealand Navy. The Depot has access to Waitematā Harbour. The armament depot was established in 1935, and was considerably expanded during the Second World War. A program to modernise the facility was announced in 2011.
