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In race to make artillery shells, US, EU see different results NOVEMBER 27, 2023
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2023/11/race-make-artillery-shells-us-eu-see-different-results/392288/

“In Europe
The countries of the European Union began with a head start, producing about 230,000 155mm shells a year—about one-third more than the U.S. The EU also has a better recent record for approving annual spending plans.
By February 2023, European production was at 300,000 rounds annually, according to Estonian defense officials. By November, capacity had risen again, though assessments differ. European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton suggested that Europe could now make some 400,000 rounds annually. Estonia’s Pevkur, speaking at a November media roundtable, put the figure between 600,000 and 700,000—and said it would reach one million rounds in 2024.”

United States
“Last March, Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo upped the target slightly, announcing plans to produce 24,000 rounds a month by year’s end.

The Army hit the target early, then exceeded it, producing 28,000 shells in October. At least some of those shells went right out the door to Ukraine, Army acquisition secretary Doug Bush told reporters in a media roundtable in November. He declined to say just how many.

Bush said the service now aims to boost its monthly production to 36,000 by March, 60,000 by September, 70,000 to 80,000 in early 2025, and 100,000 by the end of calendar 2025 — two and half times more than Wormuth’s year-old goal.”

“Congress, which has not yet agreed to fund the government past January, may not consider the bill until a longer funding resolution is passed. House Republicans, meanwhile, have become more and more leery of funding Ukraine,
Without that money, the Army will not meet its goal of producing 100,000 155mm rounds by the end of 2025, Bush said.”

The European Commission claims this “Thanks to measures already taken, European annual production capacity for 155 mm shells had already reached 1 million per year in January 2024.”

In this March 15,2024 release.
Today, the Commission allocated the €500 million foreseen under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP). This will allow the European defence industry to ramp up its ammunition production capacity to 2 million shells per year by the end of 2025.

The Commission also launched the Work Programme for the instrument for the reinforcement of the European defence industry through common procurement (EDIRPA) and the fourth annual Work Programme of the European Defence Fund (EDF).

Together, these programmes have a budget of almost €2 billion. Today’s steps towards the reinforcement of the European defence technological and industrial base are taken in the wake of the adoption of the first ever European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) and the associated proposal for a European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1495

“Curious where the Czech shells are... Where are they coming from?”

The Czech Government, led by President Petr Pavel (who held the position of Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018, and served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces between 2012 and 2015.) scoured the Earth for countries with the right Artillery shells in inventory, who would be willing to sell some. Publicly, they say that they have identified 1.5 million that are available now, for cash on the barrel.

Many supplying countries don’t want their names mentioned, to avoid disrupting relations with Russia, but I have seen some reports that include BRICS countries, like India, Brazil and South Africa - or even countries that Russia considers(ed) allies. Some others don’t want to be mentioned, to avoid shaming for not donating the shells, but instead holding out to be paid for them (it is hard for many countries to fund their Defense).

The big thing about the Czech initiative, is that the shells exist, and just need to ship. They have already started flowing.

When the EU started debating how much each country would pay for the Military supplies for Ukraine, France was a strong proponent that Europe needed to expand its Defense Industrial Base, and should therefor buy all their equipment and supplies internally, to help fund their industrial build out.

That approach would of course lead to a long lead time between procurement decision/funding and the actual delivery. That in turn, would require the USA to provide the bulk of Ukraine’s supplies, for a couple of years, until European factories were built out. Based on past experience, the Europeans, almost without fail, in the end fail to provide their agreed upon proportion of the bill. Typically, they will come through with only a third or a half of their commitments (like the Bonn Agreement to rebuild the Afghan Government and Military, or the NATO obligation of 2% of GDP). The Europeans committed to providing a million shells last year, but only delivered about 300,000.

This time however, the USA did not just cough up the extra supplies when the Europeans dragged their feet, and Petr Pavel’s Government came to the rescue with the leadership to fill the breach. May God bless him.

Kyiv Independent reports (26 March, 2024):

“Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told journalists that Slovenia will join Czechia’s initiative to supply artillery shells for Ukraine, Radio Prague International reported on March 26.

The initiative was founded in February, when Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague had identified 500,000 155 mm shells and 300,000 122 mm shells outside of Europe that could be bought and sent to Ukraine if provided with the necessary funding.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on March 12 that the initiative has already secured the purchase of 300,000 shells and received nonbinding commitments for 200,000 more.

Slovenia plans to allocate one million euros ($1.08 million) to the initiative, Radio Prague International reported, citing Slovenian news agency Sta.

Slovenia joins over a dozen other countries that have committed to the initiative, including the Netherlands, Iceland, France, and Lithuania.

The initiative may deliver as many as 1.5 million rounds, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in an interview with Bloomberg published on March 26.

While the Czech foreign minister declined to give a timeline for the delivery of the shells, Tomas Pojar, a Czech national security adviser, said earlier that the first batches could be sent to Ukraine as early as June.” (That is later than what I understood, for the first batches - probably they are experiencing late payments of pledged donations, as per their SOP)