Russia's artillery supply crisis: Reliant on North Korean aid
Russians are predominantly (60 per cent) relying on artillery ammunition supplies from North Korea. Satellite images of Russian artillery ammunition depots reveal that the extensive ammunition reserves inherited from the USSR have been exhausted.
Russia is currently producing only 30 percent of the required ammunition, and the remainder of its needs can only be met thanks to Kim Jong Un's generosity. This situation seems to have led to the depletion of post-Soviet ammunition stocks, which OSINT investigator Just BeCause decided to examine.
His highly interesting thread on X (formerly Twitter) includes a comparison of satellite images of Russian artillery depots from 2022 and the latest available ones (mostly from 2024). Essentially, all of them have been cleared out, or 90 per cent of what was there has disappeared, leaving only potentially dangerous explosive scrap. An example is a photo from September of bases numbered 1819, 2719, or 1215.
Here's what rusted outdoors for decades
In the case of artillery ammunition for barrel systems, the depots contained millions of 122 mm and 152 mm calibre shells along with the propellant charges. The 122 mm calibre shells, in the most common and basic OF-462 variant, containing about 2-4 kg of explosive, enable targeting at a distance of up to 14-24 km depending on the barrel length of the artillery system from which they are fired.
The first value is adequate for systems like the 2S1, and the second for D-74 guns. Of course, there are also variants of these shells with a gas generator offering a 30 percent greater range or even cluster versions, but they were not produced by the USSR (newer items are usually of Chinese production).
On the other hand, in the case of 152 mm calibre shells, the most popular are, for example, OF-25 and OF-540, which contain about 6 kg of TNT, although there are also variants with a larger charge of 8 kg. The range of the simplest shells is about 18 km for systems like the 2S3 Akacia or 24 km for 2S19 Msta-S with longer barrels. Russians also produced shells of this calibre with a gas generator and rocket booster, but they were rare.
Conversely, in the case of rocket systems ammunition, the Russians had the most 122 mm calibre rockets for BM-21 Grad. Depending on the version, they have a range of 19 to a maximum of 40 km. They come in numerous variants, but the most popular is the one with a 19 kg high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
The Russians also had larger rockets in stock, 220 mm calibre for BM-27 Uragan systems, with a range of 35 km or about 60 km in newer versions. These rockets had warheads weighing 90 kg, but that's nothing compared to 300 mm rockets with 250 kg warheads for BM-30 Smerch systems.
It is worth noting that the condition of ammunition stored in such conditions was at least poor. Already in 2023, ammunition transports began reaching Russian soldiers, which was more explosive scrap than useful.
