WASHINGTON — The US has delivered 806,000 155mm field artillery rounds to Ukraine over the past six months. The level of these munitions in US warehouses is “uncomfortably low”. These are the words of a representative of the Pentagon. The war in Ukraine is gradually depleting and greatly reducing the supplies of the US military.
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The leaked data is causing concern in the US Department of Defense. There is no official information on the exact amount of 155mm artillery ammunition for field artillery in the warehouses of the US Army.
Political circles in Washington occasionally criticize the Pentagon and the US government for these deliveries. Criticism intensified when it emerged that 806,000 155mm artillery shells had been delivered to Ukraine from February 24 to August 24. Criticism became even fiercer when it was also revealed that stockpiled 155mm ammunition levels were “uncomfortably low”. A US defense official said: “The levels are not critical, but they are not the levels at which we want to go to war.”
The US has delivered various aid packages to Ukraine in recent months. They also include guided artillery missiles, 105/155 mm howitzer systems, weapons detection radars, air-to-surface missiles, air defense systems, and anti-ship and anti-tank missiles.
From 1999 to today, the US Army has purchased a total of 3,000,000 artillery shells, caliber 155mm. This means that nearly 27% of them have already been sent to Ukraine. Given the decline in the number of ammunition purchases over a nearly 20-year period, doubts remain that the gap left by the Ukrainian-Russian war can be filled in the short term.
Negotiations are currently underway between the US government and the companies producing 155mm ammunition. In addition to the fact that companies are overloaded, they are pressured to open new production lines. Despite everything, the production of 155mm ammunition continues. Studies by the US Department of Defense, however, show that this production is still insufficient to fill the stocks completely.
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