Russia Confirms Increase Of Artillery Shell Production By 150% In Past Year

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Thursday that Russia’s production of artillery shells has increased by nearly 2.5 times over the past year as Moscow is significantly out-producing the West.

Shoigu also said that Russia was producing components for artillery at a rate of 22 times what it could make last year. "Speaking about manufacturing of artillery munitions, the volume of production of components to such ammunition was increased by almost 22 times," he said.

Shoigu’s comments came after CNN reported that Russia was producing nearly three times as many artillery shells than the US and Europe combined.

The report, based on a NATO assessment, said Russia has the capacity to produce 3 million shells per year while the US and Europe can make 1.2 million.

It’s been clear for a while that NATO could not keep up with the production needed to fuel the proxy war in Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last year that Ukraine was using artillery ammunition at a much faster rate than what the entire alliance could produce.

"The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production, and this puts our defense industries under strain," Stoltenberg said in February 2023.

At that time Stoltenberg urged that NATO needs to "ramp up production" and that European leaders should focus on "ways to increase our defense industrial capacity and replenish stockpiles."

Due to its shortage of conventional 155mm artillery ammunition, the US has been arming Ukraine with artillery shells packed with cluster bombs, which are notorious for killing and maiming civilians and are banned by over 100 countries.

The US announced a new $300 million arms package that included more cluster bombs. The US supplied Ukraine with the package despite the lack of new funding for the war and claimed it was paid for with money saved in the US Army budget.