Indigenous Ammunition Production

Meeting the critical need for ammunition by the Armed Forces requires rapid ramping up of indigenous production

- K. PATTANAIK 

THE MOST VITAL LESSON from the Ukraine war, which has entered its third year, is that ammunition stocking and production are critical to a nation’s war fighting resilience. Lack of adequate storage, production capacity and heavy dependence on foreign sources can severely constrain strategic freedom and pose serious challenges in the battlefield.

The Lesson Learned

Barely weeks into the war in February 2022, the European Union states pledged to deliver a million rounds of 155mm ammunition to Ukraine within a year. Two years later, at a critical moment in the war and with Ukraine running short of artillery shells to defend its 1,000 kms long frontline having already lost nearly 20 per cent of its territory, experts, weapons manufacturers and even some government officials are expressing growing doubts. Europe’s shrunken military sector, they say, may simply be unable to ramp up production fast enough to achieve the million-shell goal. After 30 years of atrophy, experts say, Europe’s shrunken military industry will struggle to provide the Ukrainians with a million artillery shells.

Some specifics are in order, to bolster how critical ammunition supply is for Ukraine to sustain its defences. To date, the US has supplied Ukraine with more than 1 million 155mm shells, the NATO-standard artillery shell. The US army is planning to boost the current production rate of about 14,000 155mm howitzer shells per month to 20,000 by this spring and up to 90,000 by 2025.