The US wants to quintuple the production of artillery shells
The Pentagon is planning to ramp up production of artillery ammunition by 500 percent over the next two years, while the United States is depleting its military stockpile by shipping millions of shells to Ukraine, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the United States has pledged to send over a million 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine. Before the U.S. military began ramping up production, it was producing 14,400 155mm shells per month, but under new plans the number could rise to over 90,000 each month.
Bullet production line. Image: BAE Systems
According to the Times, an Army report said the plan calls for expansion of factories and entry of new manufacturers in an effort described as the US military-industrial complex's "most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years." .
The 155mm unguided shells that are fired from howitzers include parts made by several gun manufacturers, including steel bodies made by General Dynamics and blended explosives by BAE Systems. American Ordnance pours the explosive into the bodies, and several other contractors manufacture the fuzes that are screwed into the shells.
US plans to dramatically increase munitions production over the next two years show that the US plans to support Ukraine against Russia for years to come, and there's no sign that the fighting will end anytime soon.
What is unclear is whether this policy is sustainable, as US military officials have warned it could be difficult to keep arming both the US and Ukraine as the war drags on. Ukrainian forces are estimated to use around 90,000 artillery shells a month, more than double what the United States and Europe can currently produce.
The United States has had to draw on a little-known stockpile of weapons stored in Israel to meet Ukraine's demand for artillery. The Pentagon has also asked US forces stationed in South Korea to send equipment to Ukraine.
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The article The US wants to quintuple the production of artillery shells comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-usa-vogliono-quintuplicare-la-produzione-di-proiettili-dartiglieria/ on Thu, 26 Jan 2023 13:42:32 +0000.