The United Kingdom has pledged to supply Ukraine with “tens of thousands more artillery shells” this year, the Defence Secretary announced.
This comes on the back of an already significant delivery, with the UK having provided over 300,000 artillery shells to the nation.
During the 15th Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) meeting held at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, the Defence Secretary, alongside Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, reiterated the nation’s firm support.
The UDCG, comprising representatives from nearly 50 countries, convenes to coordinate international assistance for Ukraine.
“Today we’ve demonstrated the UK’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine and set out more military support, including pledging tens of thousands more artillery shells to enable Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked invasion and to retake illegally occupied territories,” stated Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
He further highlighted plans to bolster support in priority areas such as air defence, long-range strike capabilities, and training as the winter months approach.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin commented on the gathering’s significance, saying, “With representatives from 50 nations gathered in Ramstein today, President Putin should be worried. This is a tangible demonstration of the international community’s continued resolve to back Ukraine with the military support it requires through the winter and into 2024.”
To date, the UK has supplied more than 12,000 anti-tank weapons, 300,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, thousands of missiles, self-propelled artillery, and more than 200,000 pieces of non-lethal equipment, including extreme cold weather clothing, mine detection equipment, and industrial strength generators.
Not a lot of use without shells.
I’m impressed that we could supply / source 300k shells TBH.
That we can now manufacture 10k’s of shells is a massive upscaling achievement of BW fighting the handwringers.
Great for our national resilience as well, rebuilding our ammo chains in a way that, hopefully, will leave us in a better place for the future.
Are we manufacturing in the UK or are we just buying inon the open market for Ukraine?
I would argue that we really need to start gearing up UK industry to produce basic ammo as the world is rapidly changing for the worse and we need to deter.
Manufacturing in the UK has massively ramped up. Though there are only a couple of sights, that manufacture the shell, which then gets delivered elsewhere to be filled.
Yes, at certain locations ooop north then away to the west.
I think we’ve been more than generous to the Ukraine, but at some point we’ll have to reconsider how much. We’ve dollied out ton’s and ton’s of our own stocks and the apparent failure to deliver a decisive result in the much vaunted counter attack should be seen for what it is, a failure at what point do we say sorry guys but we’re going to scale down our military aid?
A failure how? The Russians are gradually retreating like cornered rats behind thier fortifications and are being trapped by thier own extensive minefields; they have implemented a third mobilisation of barely trained, grossly undersupplied and demoralised soldiers which will only impede thier already abysmal performance and worsen their flat lining logistics; they are using confiscated civilian trucks to bring supplies to forward positions… This isn’t COD; It’s slow grinding attritional ww2 style warfare. Ukranian progress is slow, sure, but they are pushing the incompetent Russian hordes back and they’re paying an appalling price in soldiers, materiel and economically….The Ukrainians resolve… Read more »
Is this guarantee additional to the recently announced increased order for the British Army?
While the UK is increasing artillery shell production – that is to say producing more shell bodies it is a little pointless as we have to buy the explosive filler, fuses and propellants from Belgium, France and Germany.
That is not improving resilience in the UK supply chain.
Thought we did it all ourselves. Not good
We off shored producing propellants, explosives and fuses because it made “best business “ …. You know a key driver in defence resilience. We don’t even mention that we can not fabricate artillery barrels here either.
ALL political parties in the UK have helped to create this situation and done nothing to help alleviate these problems. But someone has made a tidy profit though…..
Fantastic but they need so much more. They say they could do with 356,000 shells a month and could fire 600,000.
Production needs to keep going up rapidly if Ukraine wants to kick out Russia.
That’s a fair whack of shells. There must be a huge corresponding wear and tear on all the gun barrels being used too. What sort of life do they have typically and are they being replaced too, by more local manufacturers?
The Ukrainian army have found that not all weapons of the same calibre fire the same compatible rounds. So a French 120mm mortar doesn’t take the same rounds as a Finish or Polish one. Only weapons built to a “NATO” common standard are interchangeable. The Ukrainian military were given more artillery pieces then they could effectively man or have enough rounds to fire from. So they’ve held some back in reserve to replace others in use once barrels worn out or damaged/ destroyed. The UK will be supplying rounds to NATO standards and therefore much more use then bespoke kit.… Read more »
A better look at standardized equipment all across NATO should be looked at
Other countries, I am sure, are also providing UKR with shells.
There is a fascinating video on Twitter (X), where a Russian soldier is having a rant. He is showing the contents of a recently delivered artillery shell. As their unit were told their shells were ineffective when hitting the ground. After taking out the fuse, he clearly shows that the shell does not contain any explosive.
Hmm, guess these past their quality checks then!
That’s hilarious- so they go whizz but don’t go bang. excellent, long may that continue.
Quality check? Russian military? No such thing.
This is what we should really be worried about.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66984944
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/03/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-ukraine-joining-eu-volodymyr-zelenskiy
See 16:42 in the later piece.
Russia is gearing up for a long war and committing all their available funds to that end.
I worry that the UK response, to encourage all to commit 2% of GDP will not cut the mustard. Additionally today I saw today that the UK is now a ‘Post Industrial Society’, seems that means other make stuff. Not sure Russia is a Post Industrial Society.
The west is suffering from Ukraine fatigue. Time to look after ourselves
What have WE GOT LEFT? are we producing enough to keep step with the amount that we are giving to the Ukraine?
No. Ask what has been replaced.
I’m glad we are donating to Ukraine but depressed (once again) at the short term nature of governments. In 2021/22 when all the intel was pointing to another war in Europe then that was the moment to put contracts into place and start the process of ramping up production. It is taking a depressingly long time to moderately increase production.