North Korean ammo keeps Russian arsenal from going empty
A majority of Russians (60 percent) are relying on artillery ammunition supplies from North Korea. The massive ammunition reserves inherited from the USSR have been depleted. Here are what satellite images of Russian artillery ammunition depots reveal.
Currently, Russia produces only 30 percent of the ammunition it needs, with the remainder of its requirements being met through the generosity of Kim Jong Un. This situation likely led to the exhaustion of post-Soviet ammunition stocks, which OSINT investigator Just BeCause decided to investigate.
His intriguing thread on X (formerly Twitter) compares satellite images of Russian artillery depots from 2022 and the most recent available ones (mostly from 2024). Essentially, all of them have been cleared out, or 90 percent of what was there has disappeared, leaving only potentially dangerous explosive scrap. An example is a photo from September showing bases numbered 1819, 2719, or 1215.
Here's what rusted outdoors for decades
The artillery ammunition depots once contained millions of 122 mm and 152 mm caliber shells along with propellant charges. The 122 mm caliber shells, in the most common and basic OF-462 variant, contain about 5-8 pounds of explosive and enable targeting at a distance of up to 9-15 miles, depending on the barrel length of the artillery system from which they are fired.
The first value is adequate for systems like the 2S1, and the second for D-74 guns. Additionally, there are variants of these shells with a gas generator offering 30 percent greater range, or even cluster versions, but these were not produced by the USSR (newer items are usually of Chinese production).
The most popular 152 mm caliber shells are the OF-25 and OF-540, which contain about 14 pounds of TNT, although there are also variants with a larger charge of 18 pounds. The range of the simplest shells is about 11 miles for systems like the 2S3 Akacia or 15 miles for 2S19 Msta-S with longer barrels. Russians also produced shells of this caliber with a gas generator and rocket booster, but they were rare.
For rocket systems, the Russians had the most 122 mm caliber rockets for the BM-21 Grad, ranging from 12 to a maximum of 25 miles, depending on the version. These rockets come in numerous variants, the most common one having a 42-pound high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
Russians also had larger rockets in stock, such as the 220 mm caliber for BM-27 Uragan systems, with ranges of 22 miles or about 37 miles in newer versions. These rockets featured warheads weighing 198 pounds, but that pales in comparison to the 300 mm rockets with 551-pound warheads for BM-30 Smerch systems.
It's worth noting that the condition of ammunition stored in such conditions was at least poor, and as early as 2023, shipments of ammunition reaching Russian soldiers were more explosive scrap than something useful.
