Exactly. Watching this all play out is strikingly similar to watching Trump get away with a mountain of stuff that would have put a poorer person in jail, and yet, no consequences.
It's a matter of what ammunition, not ammunition in general. Ukraine uses a quarter of a million artillery shells a month. The US doesn't have facilities to build them that fast because we would never need to use that many. We would absolutely own the sky over both the battlefield and Russia itself, reducing the utility of artillery and increasing it's effectiveness. The benefits of combined arms and force multiplication can't be overstated.
We could very quickly build out capacity to produce the shells Ukraine needs, but it's a problem of economics. Those facilities are expensive, and wouldn't be required long enough to provide suppliers a return on investment. We would have to pay a massive premium on those shells and, this far, there hasn't been the will to do that.
Problem is the united states is running out of ammo to send. Thinking one small war could blow through our reserves so quickly is concerning.
If that weren't 1,000% wrong and uninformed, you might be right. That would be concerning.
But US military was designed to take on two world superpowers simultaneously. If you think you're running out of ammo, you are grossly uninformed and should stop listening to Russian propaganda. The only thing the US might be running out of is old ammo that we're trying to get rid of and have to start giving out the new shit.
It was shot. That is where it went. Where else do you think ammo would go? We hold a stockpile back for our defense but we sent the majority to ukraine. We have one factory that makes ammo and that's it.
Where else? Personal stockpiles, but that's hardle a point versus your assertion of one factory doing national production.
Certainly numbers are dwindling for US manufacturing, but (without data at hand) this asserton smells of rhetoric. Talking points. It would.be strategic suicide to allow that state of affairs to exist in this day and age, and yet, ... You might be right. Darn you.
My point is, "point taken." Now I gotta go look up US domestic ammunition production, except I wasn't planning to sign up for new government watchlists this weekend.
Personal stockpiles? Do you think the average American has 155mm round sitting in their home? Rifle rounds are not the issue.
Ukraine needs heavy weapon rounds. We have one factory that makes 155mm rounds. I can't remember which one stinger or javelin, they had to restart the line that had been shutdown.
People complain about our military spending but that is what it cost to keep the capability to have a large war.
Currently, our production is around 14K 155mm rounds a month. Ukraine was shooting that every few days. Biden is working hard to increase the capacity, but we are talking about a specialized production.
I think the takeaway from this is that we have not seen a war like this in a very long time. The amount of ammo each side is shooting is insane.
A quick google will find you many sources on this topic as it has become a huge issue. If we had another war, Taiwan for example, we would run out of ammo in days.
Currently, the US produces just over 14,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition every month. As The Washington Post reported last month, Ukrainian forces have previously fired that many rounds in the span of 48 hours.
This is what scares me - the idea that we could run out of conventional weapons during a hot war, and start having to think of all those nukes lying around "doing nothing"
Some powers really are too much for humans. We're not ready