SIC 3483 Ammunition, Except for Small Arms

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT.
• BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT.
• CURRENT CONDITIONS.
• INDUSTRY LEADERS.
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3483

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing ammunition, not elsewhere classified, or in loading and assembling ammunition of more than 30 millimeters (or more than 1.18 inches), including component parts. This industry also includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing bombs, mines, torpedoes, grenades, depth charges, chemical warfare projectiles, and their component parts. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing small arms are classified in SIC 3482: Small Arms Ammunition; those manufacturing explosives are classified in SIC 2892: Explosives; and those manufacturing military pyrotechnics are classified in SIC 2899: Chemicals and Chemical Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS CODE(S)

332993

Ammunition (except Small Arms) Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 54 establishments operated in this category. Industry-wide employment totaled 6,750 workers receiving a payroll of more than $303 million in 2003. Of these employees, 3,578 worked in production, putting in almost 7.1 million hours to earn wages of more than $119 million. Overall shipments for the industry were valued at $1.16 billion in 2003, down from $1.19 billion the year before.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

Gunpowder was first employed to project missiles early in the fourteenth century, when large dart-like objects were propelled through the air during medieval battles. Darts were soon replaced by more reliable, rounded projectiles that were fired from cannon-type devices. Napoleon III released one of the first written works about artillery that included large ammunition in 1338, entitled Etudes Sur … l'artillerie. Stone shot was replaced by iron shot in the mid-1300s, because iron allowed greater penetration of stone walls. Soon thereafter, shells were invented that could be filled with gunpowder, fired from cannons, and made to explode. Rounded metal balls and shells remained the principal types of large ammunition from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century.

The large ammunition industry in the United States arose as a result of both internal and external military conflicts, particularly the Civil War and both World Wars. Development of the rifled artillery barrel and smokeless gunpowder in the nineteenth century lead to the...