The United States is ramping up production of 155mm artillery ammunition to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with sufficient weapons.
Source: The Washington Post
Details: The US administration is now focused on expanding the production of 155mm artillery shells, which proved critical to Ukraine during the counteroffensive.
During the winter, Ukrainian troops reportedly received American training in modern combined arms maneuvers, but Ukraine allegedly “largely abandoned this tactic, instead opting for a grueling artillery approach in an attempt to break through Russian minefields and trench lines.”
US officials say that would require Ukraine to have a reliable supply of artillery shells.
The media alleges that “Ukrainian forces have created an ammunition advantage on the southern front by using long-range missiles from France and Britain to strike Russian ammunition depots behind the front lines.”
There, with reference to the Ukrainian forces, they write that these strikes will be effective only when the Armed Forces of Ukraine break through the Russian defenses.
Since February 2022, the Pentagon has awarded $2.26 billion worth of 155mm production contracts, which has helped boost US production from 14,000 a month before the Russian invasion to about 20,000 a month now.
Soon, production should reach 28,000 units per month, and by the fall of 2025, it is planned to produce 1 million shells per year.
US officials declined to say how much of it would go to Ukraine.
Various companies are involved in the production of shells. The US Department of Defense is also investing in expanding product lines.
For now, U.S. officials are hoping that the cluster munitions that the U.S. previously authorized to provide to Ukraine will help keep the momentum going until more conventional munitions are produced.
According to them, in the near future, the range of artillery munitions sent to Ukraine will include more cluster munitions.
The US Department of Defense wants to help Ukraine and its allies “catch up” before winter.
Officials note that some contracts signed to supplement US supplies or produce specific weapons for Ukraine were completed in 30 days or less, including agreements to build Switchblade and Phoenix Ghost UAVs and NASAM air defense systems. Also, for the first time, multi-year contracts for the supply of ammunition were concluded.
They also note that the replenishment of the American arsenal will require the search for basic materials for the production of weapons, and this problem is complicated by the global shortage of chemicals and explosives.
So, the USA no longer produces TNT and switched to its substitute called IMX, but a sharp increase in the production of shells prompted the States to look for new global suppliers of TNT.
The US has significant stockpiles of explosives, officials said, but as factories turn out more shells, “we know we will need additional production of both propellant and explosives,” a defense official said.
The EU is also trying to solve this problem. For example, in the summer the EU approved a plan that calls for the production of 650,000 large-caliber munitions per year and committed to supplying 1 million artillery munitions to Ukraine over the next 12 months.
2023-08-20 19:45:00
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