Shortage of artillery shells - update
Gun doesn't go boom - update
This is a key article from our past, predating Fallout.
and a follow on article:
We knew artillery would be decisive in Ukraine.
It usually is in war.
Or you can ask John “I saved Ukraine by telling Ukrainians to drink their own piss” Spencer or Mike “Ukraine doesn’t need artillery” Martin what they they think is key. Probably urban combat and cyber. You can find our receipts here:
Dustin Du Cane
Anyway its been a terrible week, month and year for Ukraine news. Much of which can be traced back to Europe and the US not ramping up military production and supply in 2023 while Ukraine died to provide wasted time.
The key type of weapon is artillery and in particular 155 mm artillery and above all its ammunition.
155 mm shells are 150 year old technology. Sorry, there really isn’t any tech inside a current shell that wouldn’t be understandable to Krupp in 1871. Europe has artisinal methods of production of shells. Ukraine doesn’t need Porsche shells. It needs lots of them. Volkswagen scale.
But Rheinmetall, the key European producer, the monopoly producer, is cashing its checks against the blood of Ukrainians. Production is hardly increasing but the prices of shells are. Why make a million shells for 1000 eur each when you can make 30.000 for 30.000 eur each. Price hasn’t gone down. Its gone up. I think this is deliberate on the part of Rheinmetall carefully not increasing production too much.
Rheinmetall: ammunition shortage keeps orders rolling in. Those wonderful share prices increasing. Mitigate that post war risk. Got to supply genocide regimes abroad first. Contracts are sacred.
I cannot fucking believe that arms producers aren’t ramping up production because they’re scared of lack of orders in the future. I’m sure Rheinmetall would have delayed increasing production in Ludendorff’s or Hitler’s face. Oh no, they didn’t. And yes I can talk about Germany’s fascist past because when Rheinmetall is supplying the fight against fascism, they drag their feet.
Ammo production is Too Little Too Late.
No you fuckers, Europe doesn’t need to build up stocks. I’d rather the Russians were stopped in Donbass and not at Warsaw. You don’t mind because you can’t imagine Russian tanks in Germany. Well guess what, they’ll come for you after Ukraine and Poland.
Wow six digit production. Thats enough for a month of war. Attrition war. Not victory war.
Fools talk palettes.
Dustin Du Cane
Serious people talk production.
Fuckers talk like this:
“Contracts cannot simply be cancelled or changed unilaterally, as that would severely damage the credibility of European defense industry as a supplier. This is a serious risk, given that production for non-European destinations has been vital for maintaining European manufacturing capacities during the past decades at a certain minimum level.
“The political objective to deliver one million artillery shells within a year seemed very ambitious already at the time of its announcement, in view of the enormous challenge it presented,” the association said, adding, “It is possible to produce and deliver this amount of shells, even if it takes a bit longer.””
A bit longer while Ukraine dies.
Stop exporting to Saudi Arabia and simplify production.
And fire all your spokespeople and senior management, Rheinmetall.
PS 5 March 2024
We get Reuters reporting:
EU aims to shift European arms industry to ‘war economy mode’
PPS 10 July EU is full of shit and the fucker hasn’t updated his ‘a little bit longer’ to a ‘lot longer’.
Investigation finds EU shell production capacity far below official statements
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, for example, claimed in June that EU manufacturers will be able to produce 1.7 million shells per year. A senior source in the European arms industry, speaking to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity, said that "the current capacity is still only a third of that figure."
Other sources indicated that Europe's production capacity is between roughly 500,000 and 600,000 shells per year. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in February that Ukraine needs 200,000 155 mm shells per month.
You cannot go on an offensive without air supremacy (which only the US can achieve on a modern battlefield), or at least air parity (or neutralisation of air elements on both sides) and artillery superiority.
You cannot have artillery superiority without lots and lots and lots of shells. And guns. But mostly shells.
Rheinmetall is fucking Ukraine with its inability to match those STUPID RUSSKIS artillery production.
Stupid Russkis is what know-nothings call a country which somehow won most of its wars and has consistently grown from a Mongol tax collection post amongst many.
Complacency, incompetence, racism and corruption. German arms manufacturers exporting to genocide Gulf princes because their money is stable, lovely and the perks are fantastic for the German managers. Meanwhile, internal investment is stifled because what they fear is having empty factories. EU red tape is a great excuse for their deliberate decisions to stifle production, which helpfully means they’re producing the same amount of shells but to sell for 4-10x the price. Stupid Russkis have 4 million shells a year production capacity despite their ‘corruption’. German arms manufacturers are as indirectly corrupt though they don’t take their bribes directly. Their bribes are massaging prices, keeping exports to Gulf murderers high and counting on EU subsidies to do their business.
I’ve said this before, can you imagine Krupp stifling German munition production in WW1 or WW2? They’d be literally dead.