Anniston Army Depot
Bynum, Alabama
Mechanics at Anniston Army Depot line up anM1 Abrams turret with its hull.
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army U.S. Army Materiel Command U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command
Location
Anniston Army Depot
Coordinates	33°39′08″N85°57′44″W / 33.65222°N 85.96222°W /33.65222; -85.96222
Site history
Built	1940 (1940)
In use	1940–present
Garrison information
Current commander	Colonel Craig A. Daniel[1]
Airfield information
Identifiers	FAA LID: 04AL
Elevation	686 feet (209 m)AMSL
Helipads Number Length and surface H1 100 by 75 feet (30 m × 23 m) Asphalt
Source:Federal Aviation Administration[2]

Anniston Army Depot (ANAD) is a majorUnited States Army facility for the production and repair ofground combat vehicles, overhaul of Small Arms Weapon Systems and the storage ofchemical weapons, a.k.a. theAnniston Chemical Activity. The depot is located inBynum, Alabama.

TheDepartment of the Army established the site in 1940, buying 10,640 acres (4,310 ha) inCalhoun County, whereAnniston is the county seat. The site was originally a munitions storage facility, and, later, a disposal facility.^[3]

ANAD was placed on theSuperfundNational Priorities List in 1990 because of soil and groundwater contamination withantimony, chromium, lead,thallium andtrichloroethylene.

The depot is located in Calhoun County, Alabama, 10 miles (16 km) west of Anniston. It covers 25 square miles (65 km²) of land, or 15,200 acres (6,200 ha).^[4] Its northern side is the Pelham Range portion ofFort McClellan. The central and northern portions of the depot span over 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) and serve as an ammunition storage area. The southern side of the depot is the Southeastern Industrial Area (SIA), a 600 acres (240 ha) industrial operations area with more than 50 buildings and a vehicle test track.

As of 2014, the depot employs 3,800 civilian workers. Tanks and other equipment are repaired and tested, but historically Anniston's main role since World War II has been as a major munitions storage site. Anniston is one of seven depots in the United States where chemical weapons were stored (7.2% of nation's chemical weapons stockpile).^[5] The stockpile has included rockets, bombs, projectiles, and land mines armed withSarin,VX nerve agent, ormustard gas. The last chemical munitions were destroyed in September 2011.^[6]

ANAD is the only depot capable of performing maintenance on heavy-tracked combat vehicles and their components and houses a state of the art 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) Small Arms Overhaul facility, which opened in January 2012 to replace an outdated facility. The depot is designated as the Center of Technical Excellence for theM1 Abrams Tank and is the designated candidate depot for the repair of theM60 Patton tank,AVLB (Armoured vehicle-launched bridge),M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle,M88 Recovery Vehicle andM551 'Sheridan' Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault vehicles.^[7] During theIraq War, over 1,000 M1 tanks, Howitzers, and other armored vehicles were stored awaiting re-engineering.^[8]

ANAD is the Army's primary site for final assembly, reset, and overhaul for theStryker family of wheeled fighting vehicles.^[9] All ten of the Stryker vehicle variants are assembled in the Nichols Industrial Park area by contractorGeneral Dynamics − Land Systems. Stryker battle damage repair and reset is accomplished through a work sharing arrangement between the depot and contractor, including a Stryker Exchange Program that converts the original flat bottomed Stryker vehicle to the IED-resistant Double V Hull configuration developed for combat operations in Afghanistan.^[9][10]

The depot houses and operates a facility for the repair, restoration, and/or upgrade of infantry weapons such as theBeretta M9 pistol,M16 rifle, andM2 machine gun. Any firearm deemed unusable or obsolete is destroyed on the premises, the materials are reduced to unusable pieces and then sold for scrap to be melted down.

ANAD is under command of the US ArmyTACOM Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM LCMC), although other operators on the facility include theDefense Logistics Agency,Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office,United States Army Center of Military History,Health Services Command, Soldier and Biological Chemical Command, and theCivilian Marksmanship Program.

In 1989, the EPA placed part of the Depot on theNational Priorities List (NPL), and one year later, the EPA and the Army agreed to address the entire Depot under theSuperfund forantimony, chromium, lead,thallium andtrichloroethylene in ground water and soils. Since then, contaminated ground water has been pumped and treated, contaminated soil has either been dug up or capped, and land use controls have been put in place. Contaminated fractured bedrock needs to be addressed.^[4]Since 1998, the Depot has aRestoration Advisory Board (RAB) composed of community members and representatives from the Depot and other agencies. Removal from NPL is expected in 2047.^[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAnniston Army Depot.

• Official website
• Brief at Global Security
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. AL-10, "Anniston Army Depot, Anniston, Calhoun County, AL", 45 data pages

• United States Army logistics installations
• Military installations in Alabama
• Anniston, Alabama
• Buildings and structures in Calhoun County, Alabama
• Military Superfund sites
• Superfund sites in Alabama
• Military installations established in 1940
• 1940 establishments in Alabama

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