The US knew that our small arms ammunition stockpiles were inadequate after the second battle of Fallujah. I don’t think they realized that extended all the way to our heavier munitions.

The other problem is that our European allies have woefully inadequate stockpiles of everything. If a shooting war broke out they would be a liability. France and Britain proved this during their air campaign over Libya.

[–] breakfastmtn 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The US just doesn't have an artillery-centered military like Russia and Ukraine though. It's very unlikely they'd be in a war like this. It makes me wonder if the headline is overstating things and that ramping up production is primarily about topping up allies. Another interesting thing about this war is that air denial has been more significant than air superiority. Russia should (on paper at least) have been able to establish air superiority and they just haven't been able to at any point. I'm curious how much that is seen as a new reality of warfare and whether this represents a slight change in US strategy, which is focused so heavily on air power and air superiority.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

We don’t but no nation except the US is capable of SEAD operations that allow uncontested control of the air. Against a near peer we might not be able to suppress air defenses across all fronts and would need to fall back on artillery.