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Ukraine today: Ukrainian defense minister expresses his plan to rebuild the country’s Military industrial complex
- Umerov, the Ukrainian new defense Minister plans to go into local manufacturing of artillery shells.
- This came after The US announced a new plan to boost its 155mm artillery shells to help increase Ukraine’s military supply.
Earlier this month Ukraine’s parliament approved Umerov as the new minister of defense. Umerov had come to this position by negotiating Ukraine’s grain exports and prisoner exchange with Russia, at the parliament, which won the members support.
Barely two weeks of being in the job, the Ukrainian defense minister, Umerov has revealed that one of his top priorities would be rebuilding the Ukraine’s cache of ammunition by improving local production, using local manufacturers whenever possible, reported The Economist.
“Anything that can be produced locally, must be produced locally,“ he told the economist.
His decision to go into local manufacturing has come after The US announced a new plan to boost its 155mm artillery to help increase Ukraine’s military supply.The US, earlier this year, has already doubled its production of 155 artillery shells, increasing from 4000 per month to 28000 per month, previously reported insider.
According to Laplante, the US under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, this number could reach 57000 per month by next spring.
Those manufacturers could eventually account for as much as 80% of local output within five years, under Umerov , Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, told the outlet.
It remains part of Umerov’s plan to boost local artillery shells manufacturing by reforming state enterprises and incentivizing private arm manufacturers, which make up between 20% and 30% of the Ukraine’s local production, reported the economist.
