West realizes artillery is ‘god of war’, industry's flywheel is spinning – Defense Express editor-in-chief Katkov

Oleh Katkov, editor-in-chief of Defense Express military portal, shared his assessment on Espreso TV.

"If we take large supplies, it is the EU that is leading them – 1 million rounds of ammunition in 12 months. The US has supplied 1.5 million artillery munitions during a part of the last year (since the end of April). If the US keeps up the pace, we will be talking about at least 2.5 million rounds of ammunition per year. We need to add what Ukraine produces itself at foreign facilities, what it orders separately at its own expense from other enterprises and other countries," he said.

Katkov said that all the necessary steps are being taken to ensure that Ukraine does not have a shortage of ammunition, which requires enormous efforts from the allies.

"Artillery in NATO countries faded into the background a few decades ago. Now they have looked at what a real war is, not a low-intensity conflict, on which they built their experience. In real war, artillery plays the first violin and has officially regained the title of "god of war." They are starting to spin the wheel of the ammunition industry and invest huge amounts of money," the expert emphasized.

He reminded that a system of centralized ammunition procurement for the entire EU, which includes three dozen countries, is being created there.

"This is an extremely powerful way, because the producers of these ammunition begin to invest in expanding production, realizing that these are plans for years. They will have orders and there will be more of them. Moreover, the manufacturers of artillery systems are starting to develop production because they understand that they will be ordered. For example, they plan to increase the production of French Cesar self-propelled artillery systems many times over," Katkov summarized.