Russia will double its production of anti-aircraft missiles this year, announced on Tuesday the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, at the end of an inspection carried out at several enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex in the city of Yekaterinburg, located at the foot of the Ural Mountains, according to EFE, quoted by Agerpres.
“There has been a considerable increase in production volume. Regarding the missiles we need for our air defense systems, we will have an increase of more than twice. We hope that throughout this year the program will be fully implemented,” said Shoigu, quoted by the Telegram account of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Shoigu visited the Novator enterprise of the Almaz-Antei consortium, which produces Kalibr and Iskander cruise missiles, and the Kalinin factory, which produces the S-300B and Buk anti-aircraft missiles. He said that the Ministry of Defense is working with these enterprises to modernize their capacity, which “should lead to a considerable increase” in production. “But there are a number of key issues that need to be solved. They need to be solved energetically. It’s about manufacturing engines and adjusting launch systems,” Shoigu explained. On previous occasions, both the Russian Defense Minister and Russian President Vladimir Putin have stated that Russia’s military industry has managed to double, and sometimes even triple, the production of weapons and military equipment, especially armored vehicles and tanks.
The Russian Defense Minister chaired a meeting on Friday dedicated to military production to meet the needs of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, where he assured that Russia has managed to “multiply the production of the main types of weapons and ammunition.” Shoigu regularly inspects the major enterprises of the Russian military complex, invariably demanding an increase in production and the development of new types of weapons that take into account the experience gained in the war in Ukraine, EFE notes. As a result of the US halting deliveries of ammunition and the inability of the European Union to organize the production of shells in the necessary quantities, the Ukrainian army is once again forced to save artillery ammunition, The Moscow Times emphasizes. The supply of 155mm shells from NATO countries, as well as Soviet-designed shells, which Eastern European countries supplied to Ukraine at the beginning of the war, have been reduced.
Meanwhile, Russia – which has put a considerable part of its economy on a war footing – is increasing its production and purchasing shells from North Korea, which has huge stocks of Soviet-made ammunition, according to the publication quoted. As reported by the US and South Korea last fall, Pyongyang would have supplied Russia with approximately one million shells. Subsequently, according to experts, deliveries could have increased by another half million shells. “We really don’t have enough ammunition,” an officer from the command of a Ukrainian brigade of artillery had recently told the Financial Times, according to The Moscow Times.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front line acknowledge that in recent days they have been forced to save shells, while the intensity of Russian bombardments has increased. According to the commander of a platoon, if during the counter-offensive in summer the Ukrainian army launched about 8,000 shells per day, in recent weeks it has had to make do with 2.000. According to EU estimates, Russia consumes about 20.00 shells per day, The Moscow Times also notes.”