The article's simplistic and short-sighted sub-title: "The flow of arms to Ukraine has exposed a worrisome lack of production capacity in the United States that has its roots in the end of the Cold War."
Try looking back a few decades further - to when the U.S. had a large number of its own arsenals, at which the government could produce weapons and ammunition at scale. Example - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory - which Wikipedia notes was in operation from 1777 to 1968, as the primary manufacturing center for U.S. military firearms.
If you know some history: All "A List" nations used to build and maintain entire networks of arsenals, armories, and such - because they knew that private companies weren't going to maintain excess production capacity and inventories, that war was a real thing, and that "Oops!, there's a war now, but we're really short on weapons and ammo" was a great game plan...if you wanted to become a former "A List" nation.
One of the reasons artillery faded away as a tool of the American military is that we became unable to make the actual gun barrels as the steel industry declined in the 60s and 70s. No domestic sources produce the steels or can work them as required, for large artillery.
Try looking back a few decades further - to when the U.S. had a large number of its own arsenals, at which the government could produce weapons and ammunition at scale. Example - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory - which Wikipedia notes was in operation from 1777 to 1968, as the primary manufacturing center for U.S. military firearms.
If you know some history: All "A List" nations used to build and maintain entire networks of arsenals, armories, and such - because they knew that private companies weren't going to maintain excess production capacity and inventories, that war was a real thing, and that "Oops!, there's a war now, but we're really short on weapons and ammo" was a great game plan...if you wanted to become a former "A List" nation.