Sky News: Russia is producing artillery shells around three times faster than Europe and the United States
26 May, 2024 Production of 152mm projectiles in Russia. March 2023. Photo credits: newsler.ru
Russia produces artillery shells around three times faster and for about a quarter of the cost than the United States and Europe. Sky News reported on this with reference to a published analysis by the management consulting firm Bain & Company. According to Bain & Company, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are facing a serious shortage of artillery shells, which are being produced relatively slowly.
Combining the supply of artillery shells from the United States and Europe to Ukraine cannot meet the needs needed to combat the Russian threat.
Msta-B towed howitzer and 152-mm shells. Photo from open sources
As a result, Ukrainian artillerymen on the frontline say for every one round they fire against Russian positions, the invading troops can launch around five shells back. The Bain & Company's research on artillery rounds discovered that Russian factories were forecast to manufacture or refurbish approximately 4.5 million artillery shells this year.
It is unclear what proportion of the total number is refurbished and produced. Still, this number is significantly higher than the 1.3 million shells that the United States and European countries are expected to produce. In addition to faster production and refurbishment, the cost of producing 152mm artillery shells in Russia hovers around £1,000 per unit.
Illustrative photo with boxes of shells.
Photo credits: National Guard of Ukraine
At the same time, the average production cost per 155 mm shell, the type produced by NATO countries, was about £4,000 per unit, although in some cases, their cost can be more than £5,000 per unit. Sky News notes that such a passive policy of expanding the production of artillery shells for Ukraine negatively affects Ukraine's ability to resist Russia. Militarnyi previously reported that the U.S.
Congress doubled its request for funding to purchase 155mm shells to replace the ammunition supplied to Ukraine and Israel.
The total value of the allocated funding is reported to be up to £6 billion.