"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (8 Viewers)

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EUR2 billion should buy a lot of artillery shells, but maybe not as many as we think.

Recent pricing for new 155mm shells produced by Rhinemetall for Ukraine was EUR3,300 per unit. That's up from about EUR2000 per shell in 2021 and roughly triple prices from 2015.

Global supply chains are still in a mess and European procurement has been really disrupted. Plus, getting stuff into a warzone you're not technically a part of is not easy.

At that price, EUR2 billion would buy 606,000 shells (roughly).

The cost should hopefully come down though as production ramps up.


Some background information:

Per US DoD accounting, the average price of an M795 unitary HE round for the US Army was $784.87 per complete fireable unit. That's based on the average price between FY1996 and FY2018. There was a base cost of $372.69 per actual shell, plus another $412.18 for all the other bits (like charges, fuses, loading/packing, programme engineering and testing).

For FY2018, cost was $807 per complete round for the Army and $704.93 for the Navy (the Navy was buying more shells it seems). FY2020 it was $864 per round. For FY2019, it was $1286.47 per shell. This is an outlier, but the US Army acquired nearly five times the usual number of propelling charges for some reason, which kicked the prices up.

So, we have a baseline cost of $705-$1286 per 155mm shell. Inflation adjusted that's somewhere between $855 and $1500 per shell in current dollars.

My hope would be that European arms producers will be able to crank out 155mm shells for somewhere south of EUR1500 each. Hopefully that could put as many as 600,000 shells into Ukrainian hands in that second round of purchasing.
 
It looked clean enough, engines were covered, but yeah, 12-14 months without maintenance must cause some concerns re. airworthiness. I doubt there's anyone qualified in Canada to work on Russian engines.

-- not to mention parts, which are themselves sanctioned.
 
Stop buying it.
Exactly. I'm responsible for global procurement at my employer's, and have moved the entirely of our necessarily-SEA purchases from PRC to Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The big boys are looking to do the same:



 
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Unfortunately, buying from China is in the system and will be until more people follow the Admiral's thinking. I had occasion to take a wheel off my wife's 2011 Ford Escape and discovered "Made in China" in the cast aluminum inside of the spokes. Not a custom wheel but stock. Although I know many parts come from China, I did not know large assemblies were from there.
 
March 20 (Reuters) - Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday that an explosion in Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula destroyed Russian cruise missiles intended for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet.

A Russia-installed official in the peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, said the blast was caused by drones laced with shrapnel and explosives and targeted civilian sites. One person was injured.

A statement by the intelligence directorate of Ukraine's Defence Ministry said: "An explosion in Dzhankoi city in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail".

The statement on social media said the missiles, designed to be launched from surface ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet, had an operational range of more than 2,500 kms (1,550 miles) on land and 375 kms (233 miles) at sea.

Ihor Ivin, the Russian-installed head of the Dzhankoi administration, was quoted as saying the city had come under attack from drones and a 33-year-old man suffered a shrapnel injury from a downed drone. He was taken to hospital and expected to survive.

Reuters was not able to independently verify neither [sic] the Ukrainian nor the Russian reports.


 
I find political pomp and circumstance to be cringe-worthy, ridiculous, and hilarious, all at the same time.

Today's proceedings in Moscow had Putin and Xi enter a long, red-carpeted room from opposite ends, and then walk to greet each other in the centre.

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Apart from an intense desire to hear the theme from "Love Story" while they walked towards each other, I have to question the sanity of men who think that this imagery is in any way positive. If I was Xi, I'd be saying "What? You want me to walk halfway down a room to shake hands...just to take photos? Sorry, but I have better things to do with my time!"

Am I missing something here?
 
I find political pomp and circumstance to be cringe-worthy, ridiculous, and hilarious, all at the same time.

Today's proceedings in Moscow had Putin and Xi enter a long, red-carpeted room from opposite ends, and then walk to greet each other in the centre.

View attachment 712290

Apart from an intense desire to hear the theme from "Love Story" while they walked towards each other, I have to question the sanity of men who think that this imagery is in any way positive. If I was Xi, I'd be saying "What? You want me to walk halfway down a room to shake hands...just to take photos? Sorry, but I have better things to do with my time!"

Am I missing something here?

When they walk down the red carpet this is what I hear.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QYMETt578MM

No wait, that disrespects Darth Vadar. He does not deserve that. It's more like this is what is heard when they walk the carpet. It is a clown show after all.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pct1uEhAqBQ
 
March 20 (Reuters) - Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday that an explosion in Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula destroyed Russian cruise missiles intended for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet.

A Russia-installed official in the peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, said the blast was caused by drones laced with shrapnel and explosives and targeted civilian sites. One person was injured.

A statement by the intelligence directorate of Ukraine's Defence Ministry said: "An explosion in Dzhankoi city in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail".

The statement on social media said the missiles, designed to be launched from surface ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet, had an operational range of more than 2,500 kms (1,550 miles) on land and 375 kms (233 miles) at sea.

Ihor Ivin, the Russian-installed head of the Dzhankoi administration, was quoted as saying the city had come under attack from drones and a 33-year-old man suffered a shrapnel injury from a downed drone. He was taken to hospital and expected to survive.

Reuters was not able to independently verify neither [sic] the Ukrainian nor the Russian reports.


I am confused by this part of the artical

The statement on social media said the missiles, designed to be launched from surface ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet, had an operational range of more than 2,500 kms (1,550 miles) on land and 375 kms (233 miles) at sea.

Why would the missiles range be affected by operating over land or sea?

I always get a chuckle reading Russian news releases, in the artical they claim that a school was hit implying that the drone targeted the school, then they say that the drone downed over the school, and the drone crashed on the school grounds. They also say that the civilian was hit by shrapnel, implying the drone was caring anti personnel weapons. Then go on to say he was hit by shrapnel from the crash of the drone, I read that as debris from the crash, not shrapnel. But I may be biased ;)
 
Unfortunately, buying from China is in the system and will be until more people follow the Admiral's thinking. I had occasion to take a wheel off my wife's 2011 Ford Escape and discovered "Made in China" in the cast aluminum inside of the spokes. Not a custom wheel but stock. Although I know many parts come from China, I did not know large assemblies were from there.
A large share of auto parts, either parts for auto manufacturers or aftermarket auto parts, come from China.

Many of your local auto parts retailers (O'Reilly, AutoZone, etc.) even purchase from the same supplier and in some cases, the parts on the shelf have the same or near identical stock number (brake calipers, starters, brake pads/shoes and so on) but just in different branded boxes.
 
Unfortunately, buying from China is in the system and will be until more people follow the Admiral's thinking. I had occasion to take a wheel off my wife's 2011 Ford Escape and discovered "Made in China" in the cast aluminum inside of the spokes. Not a custom wheel but stock. Although I know many parts come from China, I did not know large assemblies were from there.
China was a different place in 2011, and looked to be leaning towards western thinking, at least in appearances. And the other SEA manufacturing nations were not yet up to China's standards on cost, scale and consistency in 2011. One thing that gives me hope is that the procurement boss at Ford is a person, just like the rest of us, and one tasked buying stuff but also the critical role of risk assessment, both economic and political. If given the option between two SEA-made options of reasonably equally priced, specification, quality and delivery capabilities, our Ford boss may well recommend the non-China option.
 

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