According to the Pentagon’s report,
the United States has already provided more than a million shells, namely
903,000 rounds in caliber 155mm and 180,000 in 105mm, 3,000 precision-guided Excalibur munitions (155mm) and 7,000 rounds of RAAMS remote mining system.
It may look like a million rounds is a huge amount of support. Especially since the MInister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov said the number of ammunition provided by the allies surpassed Ukraine’s own stocks as of February 24 back in June.
As noted, besides the U.S., there are also other countries that provide artillery ammunition, therefore the total number of supplies has far surpassed the one-million mark.
But in fact, this number is not nearly as astronomical as it seems.
Let’s consider 1.5 mln rounds of 155-mm caliber and compare to the number of artillery systems handed over to Ukraine. While the exact number is kept secret, it could be estimated at more than 200 units of 155mm artillery systems, ranging from first-delivered M777 to the most recent Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers manufactured on Ukraine’s order.
E.g. about 7,000 to 7,500 rounds per artillery system, with the shells arriving from April to October. To sum things up, considering the number of guns, it’s approximately 35-38 shots per day for a single barrel in these seven months. For many of the systems, it’s only about 10 minutes of work at a standard firing rate of 4 rpm. For automated systems such as the PzH 2000 it is even less – about 3-4 mins.