How the Ukraine War Exposes Vulnerabilities in U.S. Ammo Production
By Daniel Christman
April 29, 2024
The passage of new funding for military aid to Ukraine means that vital supplies for fending off the continuing Russian invasion will soon be on their way. Ukraine’s continuing shortages in bullets, artillery shells, vehicles, and air defense has shown that the United States and her allies were completely unprepared for the duration of a hot war with Russia. As Russia continues to throw a nearly inexhaustible supply of bodies and bullets against Ukraine, Ukraine’s western allies have been struggling to generate the physical capacity and until now, the political momentum necessary to meet demand. Subsequently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted that his country would lose the war if the U.S. fails to provide sufficient supplies. To prevent a Russian victory, the U.S. must undertake efforts to boost and protect its production capacity.
Due to Ukraine’s growing deficit of 155mm artillery ammunition, its troops are increasingly forced to rely on small arms like rifles, machine guns, sub-machine guns, and pistols to fend off oncoming masses of Russian infantry. Nearly every soldier in Ukraine holds an automatic weapon, and when many sections of the front line have no artillery available at all, Ukrainian troops must expend significant amounts of small arms ammunition as a last line of defense. The U.S. has transferred 400 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades since February 2022, but it is not enough to sustain the long-term fight. For comparison, the U.S. required 1.8 billion rounds of small caliber ammunition during counter-insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004 alone.
With all NATO member states facing difficulties in producing the amount of ammunition and equipment needed to support Ukraine’s continued self-preservation, allied countries should examine the manufacturing bottlenecks and vulnerabilities that could worsen the problem. One critical example is the dearth of companies that produce ammunition primers, which ignite the powder in an ammunition cartridge. There are only four fully operational manufacturers of primers in the U.S.: Winchester, which is owned by Olin Corporation, and Remington, Federal, and CCI, which are all owned by Vista Outdoor, Inc.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/04/29/how_the_ukraine_war_exposes_vulnerabilities_in_us_ammo_production_1028056.html
