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I'm not downplaying what we're giving Ukraine; I was taking objection to the idea that the US barely has enough munitions to defend itself from a nebulous enemy and we need to be careful about how much we give out.
Yup, my service was decades ago.
https://www.voanews.com/amp/without-more-funds-us-unable-to-hit-ammunition-production-goals/7510881.html
Right now we are making 28k a month. Ukraine shoots 7k a day. That’s 210,000 a month.
That’s the issue. It’s one I didn’t know we had. I always assumed we could ramp up quickly since that’s a standard round.
It's the "without more funds" part that's misdirection. I still do assume that we could ramp up, quite quickly. These are private companies producing the munitions; if the gvmnt suddenly doubled the contract funding, I would be greatly surprised if we discovered production couldn't keep up.
Most the plants are not privately owned. They are government owned and contractors work in them.
Most of these plants were shutdown as a cost savings measure. That’s been the issue
https://thegunzone.com/who-manufactures-ammunition-for-the-us-military/
https://www.gd-ots.com/munitions/artillery/
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/naval-launchers-and-munitions.html (just to include one of the other branches)
I could find more, if you like. All claim to be the manufacturers of ordinance. It's not just the ammunition, the guns themselves are manufactured by private corporations. The M777 Howitzer is produced by BAE Systems. It's always a private contractor who designs and delivers weapons and ordinance.
Yes the guns are but that isn’t where we have the shortage. The shortage is the ammunition. A gun isn’t useful without ammo.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2023/10/17/middletown-iowa-ammunition-plant-will-make-more-of-the-artillery-shells-ukraine-is-firing-at-russia/71134562007/
There is another in Pennsylvania. Both are owned by the army and contractors make the ammo.
Same with lake city but they make rifle rounds.
If you can find where private companies are making 155mm in their own facilities I’d like to see it. I’ve only found it made in army arsenals.
OK, let's ignore small arms and focus on things a civilian simply can't buy, like howitzers and tanks.
The actual munitions - not the weapons, but the ammunition - are manufactured by a variety of companies, including Aerojet Rocketdyne and Nammo. Nammo makes a bunch of ammunition, from small arms, to cannon ammo for the M1 to 155mm Archer L52 howitzers. AR also produces ammunition for the A10's GAU, and a bunch of other munitions and munition parts for more complex munitions (missiles & bombs). Both of these companies make TOW missiles - again, the munitions, not the weapon systems.
Lockheed Martin makes the actual Patriot missiles - that article incidentally talking about the very ramping-up we're discussing.
The US outsources all weapons and ammo manufacture to the private sector. This is exactly why it's called the Military Industrial Complex, and why Eisenhower warned against it.
Those are the contractors. The government owns the facilities at least for 155mm. Can you show which factory makes the 155mm round? You seem to be confusing the contractor with the factory. Two two are not the same.
Missiles may be done differently; I have not found an article talking in detail about who owns what with the production of The Patriot.
As I cited previously, we are ramping up, but not quickly enough to meet their needs. Ukraine needs about 210,000 155mm rounds a month. We are generating about 28K a month.
That goes against all the news article. We can’t keep up with the demand from Ukraine unless we deplete our stockpiles. If China acted up, Iran or if we needed to fight Russia we wouldn’t have the supply to do it.