The US plans to double the production of 155-mm rounds, reaching the figure of 24 thousand ammunition per month by the end of 2023 and increase it 6 times within 5 years, writes Defense One with reference to Deputy Chairman of the US Department of the Army Gabe Camarillo.

The Pentagon plans to spend about $1.45 billion to modernize production facilities to meet Ukraine’s needs and replenish its own stockpile of ammunition, Camarillo said during the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium. In addition, the army is increasing the production of FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles and GMLRS missiles.

Production of FGM-148 Javelin missiles will more than double to 330 per month, and launcher production will double to 41 per month. According to Camarillo, adding factory lines, purchasing equipment and hiring a second shift of workers will cost $349 million. Interestingly, this appears to be the same increase in production of FGM-148 Javelin missiles that Lockheed Martin promised back in May 2022.

As for GMLRS missiles, the Pentagon plans to increase monthly production from 566 missiles to 1,110 by 2026, that is, twice as well.

In total, this year the United States will invest more than $2 billion in industrial facilities used for the production of weapons and ammunition. These funds are part of a 15-year plan to modernize state weapons and ammunition facilities worth $18 billion.

The production of 155-mm rounds is slightly ahead of previous estimates. If in April 2022 US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said that the US plans to produce 20,000 155-mm rounds per month in the spring of 2023, now it is already about 24,000 rounds per month.

Unfortunately, this is not enough. According to a study by Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the US has already sent 1,074,000 155-mm rounds to Ukraine with an urgent need of the Armed Forces at least 143,000 per month.

Further expansion of production in the USA is complicated by a lack of equipment. As assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics, and technology Doug Bush says, “These machines are the size of buildings. You don’t just go buy it from a parking lot somewhere.”

The world was not ready for hostilities of such intensity. Rounds of Soviet and NATO calibers for Ukraine are now being sought all over the world, and a number of countries are investing in expanding production. But unfortunately, the increase in production does not happen instantly.

The army of ruscist invaders, which is trying to buy Soviet-style ammunition from North Korea, Iran, and the People’s Republic of China, is also starving for ammunition.