Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world

thunderbong

From less than a day ago - Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity 141 points, 163 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47944924

arjie

I always wonder about these production numbers in the military. The US has a large military complex and Germany is an industrial power and North Korea is a small military autocracy suffering from raw material shortages, but Googling around I see[0]: > The expert also said that the North’s annual production estimate of 2 million 152-millimeter artillery shells is premised on peacetime manufacturing rates. But here Germany is the largest ammunition producer and they're making 1.1 million (presumably both are per-year rates). This link[1] says the US makes 672k/year (I'm annualizing their per-month number) so definitely Germany is making more than the US. I get the impression a lot of these things need some contextualization. Are the rates per month or per year, is production dispatchable, do some countries have stockpiles or refurbish shells? Because just looking at raw numbers here results in strange results like North Korea being way larger than Germany at this. 0: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2023-11-06/nationa... 1: https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/army-official-not-happy-...

ekianjo

More than Russia? I kind of doubt it.

heyheyhouhou

German industry is changing a lot loosing against China, so they have been moving to war related stuff for the past years. Personally, I know a bunch of people who were offered get transferred from VW to a military drone company. On one side I understand that manufacturing a lot of weapons could be somehow a protection for the future, but also Germany provides a lot of ammunition to Israel that is killing thousands of innocents in Gaza and Lebanon. Germany is friend of Israel despite many people disliking it in Germany (they are still waving Israeli flags in many official places). Also, weapons will lead to more weapons, more violence and more war, specially if you have investors behind willing to see their shares going up...

zitterbewegung

It also probably helps since Russia is now sanctioned that Germany is basically filling in the huge void right ?

debo_

This article needed more bullet points. /joke

yanyanhack

I took a look and realized it was a Ukrainian website. They’ve been addled by the bombs—spouting such utterly disruptive, shit-stirring nonsense.