ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ
OUR MAIN PHOTO: The REPCON factory in Texas.
From 1,000-pound bombs for Israel to a $533 million artillery fiasco, the remarkable rise of the Turkish-linked REPKON/Paligen network inside America’s strategic munitions industry.
By Helleniscope’s Editorial Team
A story that began in March with 1,000-pound bombs destined for Israel has now widened into a much larger—and potentially more troubling—question about Turkey’s growing footprint inside America’s defense-industrial base.
At the center is the name REPKON, a Turkish defense manufacturer whose technology was selected for an ambitious new U.S. artillery-shell plant in Mesquite, Texas. Closely connected to that story is REPKON USA, recently renamed Paligen Technologies, which has rapidly acquired strategically important positions in American bomb and explosives production.
The first warning sign came from an unexpected direction.
In March, the U.S. government identified REPKON USA as the principal contractor connected to an emergency $151.8 million sale of 12,000 BLU-110A/B 1,000-pound bomb bodies to Israel. The revelation caused an uproar in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spent years portraying himself as one of Israel’s fiercest opponents and a defender of the Palestinians. Days later, REPKON USA announced that it was changing its name to Paligen Technologies. Turkish Minute reported extensively on the controversy.
The company says the timing should not be interpreted as an attempt to hide its connections. Paligen states that it was formed in 2024 as REPKON USA Holdings, that it used the REPKON name with permission from the Turkish company, but that the two organizations have different ownership, management, missions and markets. That distinction is important: although some media reports describe the American company as REPKON’s U.S. subsidiary, Paligen insists the companies are legally separate and independent.
But the Turkish connection does not end with a corporate name.
On August 12, ProPublica published a devastating investigation into a new U.S. Army artillery factory in Mesquite. The Army paid General Dynamics $533 million to establish the plant as part of Washington’s emergency effort to expand production of 155mm artillery shells after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
PHOTO: The munitions factory.
The result?
According to ProPublica, the factory produced no usable shells.
General Dynamics had brought in Turkish REPKON to provide innovative “flow-forming” machinery for the production lines. Former workers and officials described repeated mechanical failures, production defects and missed deadlines. The Army ultimately halted work on two of the plant’s three lines in August 2025. A subsequent ProPublica summary reported that General Dynamics missed eight deadlines and that much of the original machinery is now being replaced.
There is an important correction here. The frequently repeated phrase “$533 million for zero shells” does not mean REPKON itself received $533 million. That money was paid by the Army to General Dynamics. REPKON was the Turkish subcontractor supplying crucial production technology.
Yet the story becomes more remarkable from there.
While the Mesquite operation was struggling, the U.S. Army awarded REPKON USA–Defense LLC a sole-source contract with a ceiling of $435 million to design and build a TNT-production facility in Graham, Kentucky. TNT is the primary explosive fill for 155mm artillery shells, and the Army says the project will restore large-scale domestic TNT production for the first time in decades.
Then, in April 2025, REPKON USA acquired General Dynamics’ Garland, Texas operation—a facility involved in producing bomb bodies. And REPKON USA had already been listed alongside Boeing as a principal contractor in a separate $675.7 million Israeli munitions package announced in February 2025, including thousands of 1,000-pound bomb bodies.
The August 28 RealClearDefense article by Sinan Ciddi connects these dots and argues that Congress should take a much harder look at foreign-linked participation in America’s munitions supply chain.
That argument deserves attention.
What has emerged is not merely a story about Turkish hypocrisy toward Israel, nor merely another Pentagon procurement failure. It is a broader national-security question: How did a Turkish-linked industrial network become involved, in such a short period, in American artillery production, TNT manufacturing and heavy bomb production—while one of the flagship projects associated with its technology ended in a half-billion-dollar failure?
For Greece, Cyprus and the Greek-American community, that is a question worth following very closely.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
• Turkish Minute — Turkish company’s US unit changes name after backlash over sale of 1,000-pound bombs to Israel
• RealClearDefense — “Zero Shells for $533 Million” by Sinan Ciddi
• ProPublica — “Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing”
• ProPublica — Key findings from the Army artillery-factory investigation
• U.S. Army — $435 million REPKON USA domestic TNT contract
• Defense Security Cooperation Agency — 2025 Israel munitions and bomb-body sale
• Paligen Technologies — Company explanation of its relationship with Turkish REPKON
• Paligen Technologies — March 2026 announcement of the REPKON USA name change
August 29, 2026, www.helleniscope.com, n.stamatakis@aol.com
DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.
