re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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I've read that all the Abrams that the US has exported have had the depleted uranium mesh replaced with some tungsten replacement plate. I assume that isn't so hard that it would create a long delay.

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What exactly is the runway/landing gear issue with the F-16.

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Explosive turnaround in arms exports: Switzerland should lend a hand for the delivery of ammunition and tanks to Ukraine

Over the weekend, the SP gave up its resistance: The Security Policy Committee of the National Council wants Germany, Denmark and Spain to be allowed to pass on weapons from Switzerland to Ukraine.

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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is racing to boost its production of artillery shells by 500 percent within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War as it invests billions of dollars to make up for shortfalls caused by the war in Ukraine and to build up stockpiles for future conflicts.

The effort, which will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers, is part of “the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years” for the U.S. defense industrial base, according to an Army report.

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The Pentagon has declined to comment on the size of its reserves of 155-millimeter shells, but Mr. Bush said the planned increases in production would support Ukraine’s needs in real time and replenish the amount drawn down from existing stocks.

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The production of artillery ammunition in the United States is a complicated process that primarily takes place in four government-owned facilities run by private defense contractors. The empty steel bodies are forged in factories in Pennsylvania run by General Dynamics, the explosives for those shells are mixed together by BAE Systems workers in Tennessee and then poured into the shells at a plant run by American Ordnance in rural Iowa, while the propellant charges to shoot them out of howitzer barrels are made by BAE in southwest Virginia.

The fuzes screwed into the nose of these shells, which are required to make the projectiles explode, are produced by contractors in other locations.

In November, the Army announced a $391 million contract with the Ontario-based company IMT Defense to make shell bodies and issued an order to General Dynamics to build a new production line for 155-millimeter shells at a factory in Garland, Texas.

A fourth domestic producer of 155-millimeter shell bodies will probably be announced soon, Mr. Bush said.

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The Biden administration is leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine and an announcement of the deliveries could come this week, U.S. officials said.

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Privately, U.S. officials were frustrated by Germany’s refusal to approve the provision of German-made tanks and have debated how to persuade Berlin to change its stance.
Pentagon officials want Leopard tanks for Ukraine, but didn’t want to send the Abrams there now, arguing that the gas-guzzling tanks with their gas turbine engines and fuel requirements make them less-than-desirable for this moment in the nearly yearlong conflict.

Some State Department and White House officials, however, have been open to meeting the German demands on the Abrams to avoid a deepening rift among Ukraine’s backers over aid to Ukraine and to expedite the delivery of more armor.

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I don't disagree with you at all.

Send the downgraded Abrams but not the modern one.

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