The Pentagon opens a plant to produce ammunition to supply Ukraine. The company will operate in Texas.
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NYT writes that it will soon produce about 30 thousand 155-mm shells per month. Last year, the Pentagon set a target of producing 100,000 shells per month until the end of 2025 to supply Ukrainian artillery brigades.
The enterprise is currently being built by a Turkish company, and by the end of next year it will be able to produce about 30 thousand artillery shells per month. Production is almost completely robotic: workers are already assembling and setting up robots to shape metal for projectiles or painting. As a result, the production of 155-mm shells in the United States should reach a total level of one hundred thousand per month – ten times more than before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The publication describes the process of producing a projectile: first, a body is squeezed out of a block of metal, then 10 kilograms of an explosive mixture are poured into it, then sealed, painted and marked. One such projectile is capable of killing people within a radius of 45 meters and injuring people within a radius of 130. This weapon has become one of the main weapons in this war, the publication writes.
But even despite the construction of new factories – and the Pentagon has not done this since the end of the Cold War – the United States is unlikely to increase the production of shells enough, says military expert Michael Kofman.
Even in the best-case scenario, these new shells may arrive late to Ukraine, and by the end of 2025, the US and EU together will be able to produce fewer shells than Russia at that time, he says.
And he adds that Russia already produces more than two million shells a year. Luckily for us, using them is quite careless.
NATO estimated in March that Russia produces nearly three times more artillery shells than the United States and other Western countries can supply Ukraine.
The first batch of artillery shells as part of the Czech initiative will arrive in Ukraine “in the coming days.” This was stated by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala at an informal meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Prague, European Pravda reports.
Fiala said that as of now, 15 European Union and NATO countries have already contributed more than 1.6 billion euros to the Czech initiative, and these efforts will “soon improve Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.