According to the newspaper, Washington is also conducting relevant negotiations with Tokyo
LONDON, August 1. /tass/. The US authorities have concluded agreements on the supply of 155 mm shells to Ukraine with Bulgaria and the Republic of Korea, and are also negotiating with Japan. This was reported by the Financial Times newspaper.
She notes with reference to representatives of the American authorities that the United States "has already concluded agreements with Bulgaria and South Korea, is negotiating with Japan" on the supply of 155-millimeter ammunition to Ukraine, and is also "actively working on expanding its own production lines" for the manufacture of such shells. The US authorities intend to increase production to the level of "90 thousand rounds of ammunition per month by fiscal year 2025," while now, according to the US Armed Forces, only 24 thousand such shells are produced per month. For this purpose, in particular, the re-equipment of defense enterprises in the Canadian province of Ontario, as well as the construction of new assembly lines in Texas, are being carried out. The US government also plans to build similar complexes in Iowa, Arkansas and Kansas.
According to the official representative of the American ground forces in Europe and Africa, Colonel Martin O'Donnell, quoted by the newspaper, the United States and its allies "have already trained 66 thousand Ukrainian servicemen and provided ammunition and weapons worth $43 billion, including 198 155-millimeter howitzers, as well as more than 2 million shells for them".. However, this "was not enough" to fully satisfy Kiev's needs for 155-millimeter shells, which "are the main type of ammunition for modern artillery systems, including the American M777 and M109."
This is not the first report about the expansion of supplies of various types of ammunition to Ukraine. In July, it became known that the largest European company in the defense sector, BAE Systems, received an order from the British government for the production of 155 mm artillery shells and other ammunition, the amount of which is £280 million ($ 360 million). The conclusion of the contract became known before the opening of the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, one of the topics of which was the supply of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. As US President Joe Biden acknowledged earlier, Ukraine is experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition.
