The United States announced on Tuesday that it has awarded a more than half a billion dollar arms contract to manufacture 155mm shells for delivery to Ukraine.
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Orders placed by the Pentagon in late January for Northrop Grumman and Global Military Products total $552 million. The first deliveries are expected in March.
Washington’s announcement comes at a time of growing fears of arms depletion in Western countries, and particularly the United States, which over the past year has stepped up withdrawals from its army’s existing stockpiles to help that of Kiev fighting to help the Russians invasion.
This order is based on a different approach: the weapons delivered to Ukraine will be produced directly for them on an American budget.
In eastern Ukraine, the Russian and Ukrainian armies can fire thousands of shells a day, up to 20,000 a day for the Russians, a US official estimated in November.
NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that Ukraine was using more ammunition than the alliance could produce. “It’s depleting our supplies and putting pressure on our defense industry,” he said.