The U.S. has committed more than 4.4 million artillery shells, tank rounds, rockets and mortars, plus another 200 million rounds of small arms ammunition to Ukraine to assist its fight against the Russians.
And that doesn’t include an unspecified number of 120mm and 105mm tank rounds and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rounds for the 38 U.S.-donated M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
Add it all up, and it weighs more than 103,000 tons.
The munitions are part of more than $36.1 billion in security assistance committed to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration, including more than $35.4 billion since the beginning of Russia’s full-on invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
This includes more than 1.5 million standard 155mm howitzer rounds as well as 7,000 M982 Excalibur guided rounds and 14,000 Remote Anti-Armor Mine System (RAAMS) projectiles and over 450,000 105mm artillery rounds.
Along with howitzers donated by allies, like the French and Danish 155mm CAESAR wheeled self-propelled howitzers, German PzH 2000 155mm guns, Polish AHS Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzers and British AS-90 155mm self-propelled howitzers, the 160 155mm and 72 105mm howitzers donated by the U.S. have proven critical on the battlefield for Ukraine. They made a huge difference last fall during the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives as well as the ongoing bloody slugfest in the Donbas.
You can read more here about the U.S.-donated 155mm variants and the 105mm rounds in our story from last October, when the U.S. commitment first exceeded one million of these artillery rounds.
Given Ukraine’s need to feed its Soviet-era artillery tubes and tanks, the U.S. has also committed over 50,000 152mm artillery rounds; about 40,000 130mm artillery rounds, 40,000 122mm artillery rounds and 100,000 rounds of 125mm tank ammunition.
Ukraine also continues to use Soviet-era GRAD rocket launchers so the U.S. has committed 60,000 122mm GRAD rockets.
The U.S. has also provided Ukraine with 120mm, 81mm, 80mm and 60mm mortars and committed more than 345,000 rounds to go with them.
And with the promise of 31 M1 Abrams tanks and the delivery of the first tranche of 113 Bradley Fighting Vehicles the U.S. has committed an undisclosed amount of 120mm ammunition for the Abrams main gun plus over 3,000 Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles and over 1,800,000 rounds of 25mm ammunition to feed the Bradleys’ main weapons systems.
Ammunition continues to be a critical need for both sides in this conflict, with Ukraine and Russia both rationing shell usage.
In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Ukraine is using up far more artillery ammunition than is currently being produced.
“Ukraine has been at this for a year and so they have used a lot of artillery ammunition,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a February meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an organization of some 50 nations working to arm Ukraine. “We’re going to do everything we can working with our international partners to ensure that we give them as much ammunition as quickly as possible and that we will do everything we can to sustain our efforts there as well.”
In addition to the shells provided by the U.S., the European Union (EU) has a $1.1 billion plan to provide one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine. And Ukraine has sought ammunition from Pakistan as well which you can read much more about here.
Russia, meanwhile, has reached out to North Korea and Iran for artillery shells.
With all the ammunition provided to Ukraine, and facing concerns about a potential conflict in the Pacific, the U.S. too is scrambling to up its production.
The Pentagon has allocated roughly $3 billion alone to buy munitions overseas from allies and to ramp up production at home, including for 155mm artillery shells, according to CNN. To help meet that need, the Army is planning a 500% increase in artillery shell production, from 15,000 to 70,000 a month, according to Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.
As this conflict drags on with no end in sight, the need for more artillery and tank shells, mortars, rockets, and small arms ammunition will only increase.
The U.S. and allies have promised to supply Ukraine as long as it takes. The long-term effect on domestic stocks remains to be seen.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com