In the U.S. weapons industry, the normal production level for artillery rounds for the 155 millimeter howitzer — a long-range heavy artillery weapon currently used on the battlefields of Ukraine — is about 30,000 rounds per year in peacetime.
The Ukrainian soldiers fighting invading Russian forces go through that amount in roughly two weeks
Europe is running low, too. “The military stocks of most [European NATO] member states have been, I wouldn’t say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said earlier this month.
The U.S. has essentially run out of the 155 mm howitzers to give to Ukraine; to send any more, it would have to dip into its own stocks reserved for U.S. military units that use them for training and readiness.
In May, when Washington ordered 1,300 Stinger anti-air missiles to replace those sent to Ukraine, the chief executive of Raytheon, the defence company that makes them, replied: “It’s going to take us a little bit of time.”
Paris, meanwhile, has sent 18 Caesar howitzers to Kyiv — a quarter of its total stock of the high-tech artillery — but it will take French company Nexter around 18 months to make new ones.
Total annual US production of 155mm artillery shells, for example, would last less than two weeks of combat in Ukraine, according to Alex Vershinin, a US procurement expert
Western arms manufacturers are scrambling to secure supplies of scarce components and materials to make weapons and munitions that, until recently, were barely in demand. Some of the electronic components of Stinger missiles, last manufactured at scale 20 years ago, are no longer commercially available, according to Raytheon.
Alex Cresswell, chief executive of Thales UK, which makes the anti-tank NLAW missiles lauded in Ukraine, said the “UK has been running down [defence] stockpiles but not investing sufficiently enough to avoid obsolesce.”
As for the guided multiple-launch rocket systems made by Lockheed Martin that Kyiv has pleaded for so it can launch strikes behind enemy lines, the US has dispatched about a third of its total stock of 20,000-25,000 missiles.
Germany continues to transfer weaponry to Ukraine, including new equipment that the German Armed Forces do not yet have, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"We delivered whatever we had: anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, mines, guns, tons of ammunition, and non-lethal aid. Since then, we've progressed to more intricate and valuable systems."
Scholz told Canada's Globe and Mail, "Self-propelled howitzers, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, anti-aircraft systems, counter-battery radar" are among the complex and high-value systems sent.
"Some of these systems are so new that only very few have been produced and some of them have not even been introduced in the Bundeswehr."
EU countries’ stocks of weapons are severely “depleted” in the wake of sending arms to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Monday.
Warnings about empty stocks have also come from member countries. Last week, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Berlin is “reaching the limits of what we can give out of the Bundeswehr.”
In July, Europe’s six largest countries offered no new bilateral military aid to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
3/07/2022 — The UK has donated Nlaws, Javelin anti-tank missiles, ... and weapon supplies are running out and can no longer keep pace with demand.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Boris Johnson that his country was getting through a week's supply of weapons in just 20 hours as the Russian attack and constant shelling comes on multiple fronts.
But while many countries have promised weapons to help bolster the Ukrainian arsenal, some have not kept up the supply.
Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian World Congress, told the newspaper that some nations – including Germany and France – had not delivered promised arms.
n the U.S., it takes 13 to 18 months from the time orders are placed for munitions to be manufactured, according to an industry official. Replenishing stockpiles of more sophisticated weaponry such as missiles and drones can take much longer.
Even a yearlong delay is a problem precisely because ammunition shortages can pop up quickly given the rate they can be drawn down in a conflict.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-war-depleting-u-s-ammunition-stockpiles-sparking-pentagon-concern-11661792188
Is the West Running Out of Ammunition To Supply Ukraine?
