March 12, 2024 (EIRNS)—CNN reported yesterday that Russia appears to be on track to produce three times more ammunition than the U.S. and its allies will be able to supply to the Kiev regime. In introducing the report, they use language like “staggering” and “frightening” to describe the news, and say that it shows how Russia’s ramping up production has “left the West behind.”
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 U.S. and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kiev, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
The U.S. 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.”
