Russian artillery reliant on North Korean shell supply
Russians are mostly (60 percent) relying on artillery ammunition supplies from North Korea. It appears that the massive ammunition reserves inherited from the USSR have been largely depleted. Here's what the satellite images of Russian artillery ammunition depots reveal.
Russia currently produces only 30 percent of the required ammunition, with the remainder of its demands being met by Kim Jong Un's generosity. This situation likely led to the depletion of post-Soviet ammunition stocks, which OSINT investigator Just BeCause decided to examine.
His fascinating thread on X (formerly Twitter) includes a comparison of satellite images from 2022 and the most recent ones available (mostly from 2024) of Russian artillery depots. Essentially, nearly all of them have been emptied, or about 90 percent of what was there has vanished, leaving behind potentially hazardous explosive scrap. A notable example is a photo from September showing bases numbered 1819, 2719, or 1215.
Here's what rusted outdoors for decades
Regarding artillery ammunition for barrel systems, the depots contained even millions of 122 mm and 152 mm calibre shells along with the propellant charges. The 122 mm calibre shells, in the most common and basic OF-462 variant, containing about 2-4 kilograms of explosive, allow targeting at a distance of up to 15-24 kilometres, depending on the barrel length of the artillery system from which they are fired.
The first value is typical for systems like the 2S1 and the second for D-74 guns. Of course, there are also variants of these shells with a gas generator offering 30 percent greater range or even cluster versions. Still, they were not produced by the USSR (newer items are usually of Chinese production).
Meanwhile, the most popular 152 mm calibre shells are, for example, OF-25 and OF-540, which contain about 6 kilograms of TNT, though there are also variants with a larger charge of 8 kilograms. The range of the simplest shells is about 18 kilometres for systems like the 2S3 Akacia or 24 kilometres for 2S19 Msta-S with longer barrels. Russians also produced shells of this calibre with a gas generator and rocket booster, but they were rare.
In contrast, regarding rocket systems ammunition, Russians had the most 122 mm calibre rockets for BM-21 Grad, ranging from 19 to a maximum of 40 kilometres depending on the version. They come in numerous variants, but the most popular is the one with a 19-kilogram high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
Russians also had larger rockets in stock, 220 mm calibre for BM-27 Uragan systems, with a range of 35 kilometres or about 60 kilometres in newer versions. These rockets had warheads weighing 90 kilograms, which pales compared to the 300 mm rockets with 250 kilogram warheads for BM-30 Smerch systems.
It is worth noting that the condition of ammunition stored in such conditions was, at best, poor. By 2023, ammunition transports began reaching Russian soldiers, which was more explosive scrap than useful.
