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Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.
Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week.
“What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.”
The US economy is still largely a civilian economy (except the Military-Industrial Complex which goes brrrrrrrt). A true war economy hasn’t occurred in the US since WWII, when the 2/3rds of the American economy were geared for mass production of wartime goods.
18 separate shipyards were (combined) producing a new Liberty Ship almost every day. Ford completed a car every 69 seconds. The Willow Run bomber factory made 1 plane an hour by March 1944. The industrial scale here was massive.
In contrast, the Global War on Terror type counterinsurgency campaigns could be done without the US in full hardcore war economy mode.
Another comparison with ship building is the number of capital ships built. Building a transport nearly every day is impressive but many people don’t realize we were also building the most capital warships by far.
So first, for reference, the Germans built 4 Battleships and most of an Aircraft Carrier during World War 2. The British built 6 Battleships, and 7 Fleet Carriers. The Japanese managed 2 Battleships and 10 Fleet Carriers. However 2 were merchant ship conversions and the last 3 were getting engines and other parts from whatever stock they had. So one had cruiser engines, another had destroyer engines, etc.
The US built 10 Battleships, and 24 Fleet Carriers. More than the UK, Germans, and Japanese combined. This is also without counting the rebuilt Battleships from Pearl Harbor.