US Artillery Capabilities Fall Victim to “Profit Over Purpose,” No Solution in Sight

Link to the article:

The Growing Weakness of Western Artillery Capabilities

– The US Army has cancelled a long-range artillery prototype because barrels were wearing out too quickly;

– The US seeks to evaluate existing Western artillery systems to extend the range of American artillery systems;

– This is done supposedly after learning lessons from the ongoing fighting in Ukraine;

– The real problem is the collective West’s inability to mass produce weapons and ammunition;

– Longer-range systems may not make them more effective on modern battlefields where counter-battery operations is conducted using long-range drones;

– Russia and China are no longer lagging in terms of military capabilities or the technology associated with them, the determining factor is quantity;

– America’s for-profit arms industry prefers small numbers of expensive weapons over large quantities of simple but effective systems, creating these shortcomings in Western artillery systems;

References:

Defenses News – US Army scraps Extended Range Cannon Artillery prototype effort (March 12, 2024):
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2024…

Defense News – US Army readies new artillery strategy spurred by war in Ukraine (August 2023):
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2023…

CNN – Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine (March 11, 2024):
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/po…