UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday that Western countries had not been maintaining necessary levels of artillery ammunition for decades.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th December, 2022) UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday that Western countries had not been maintaining necessary levels of artillery ammunition for decades.
"Across the Western nations we have clearly over the decade been not running our ammunition stocks at the right levels... Yes, we've got lower stocks but we are going to invest to it," he said in an interview with Times Radio.
He noted that this shortage had been caused by his predecessors' intention to cut costs, which had been often achieved through decreased ammunition stocks. However, Wallace added, the defense ministry has additional 500-600 million Pounds ($610-730 million) to start replenishing the stockpiles.
In late November, the Royal United Services Institute published a piece of research, saying that Russia, during the most intense phase if its ongoing military operation in Ukraine, had used twice as much ammunition as the Unites Kingdom had in its stocks. Besides, according to the research, if the UK had used as much artillery shells as the Ukrainian army, it would have run out of them in a week.
