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

- 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/2024/03/11/us-army-scraps-extended-range-cannon-artillery-prototype-effort/

Defense News - US Army readies new artillery strategy spurred by war in Ukraine (August 2023):

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2023/08/01/us-army-readies-new-artillery-strategy-spurred-by-war-in-ukraine/

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/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html

How to Support Brian's Work (and thank you!):

Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheNewAtlas

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/landdestroyer

PromptPay: 0851547235

Cryptocurrency Donations:

Ethereum (ETH): 0xee6ed93c3adc474450011e9af22939a0b9b312c7

BitCoin (BTC): 1AfGnbmHxA6cy9YKUSxysXvpJPyecpBKrr

Monero (XMR): 845TCXx3pchSBXuDL7FHG679gbWD2wkHS6MJxuq7jFVsVFj7T6xsry747uhhGZUdkaRXbbrMfo5c8RnGfzGZ13KxQUdHVLR

Mirrored - The New Atlas