Russian missile stocks are depleting, but new production is boosting those numbers
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (Photo:REUTERS/Murad Sezer)
Russia is running low on Iskander cruise missiles, though it still has about half of its air-launched missile stocks and one-third of its sea-based Kalibr stocks, compared to their quantity on Feb. 23, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote in Twitter on Nov. 22. He published an infographic of the numbers.
Following over a month of mass missile strikes on energy infrastructure facilities and civilian objects, Russia has used up much of its stocks. However, production of new high-precision missiles are ongoing.
As of Nov. 22, Russia has only 119 (48 of them newly produced) Iskander missiles – 13% of the quantity it possessed prior to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, it has maintained 43 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles – the same level as prior to the war, due to new production of 16 of them.
In general, Russian military manufacturing seems to have largely elided or recovered from Western-imposed sanctions.
For example, Russia still can produce Kalibr cruise missiles, which are especially hard to intercept when launched from a submarine. 120 out of 229 Russian Kalibr missiles have been manufactured since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
As Bloomberg reported on Oct. 29, electronics are being striped out from refrigerators, washing machines, and other household appliances exported to Russia's neighboring countries for use in military manufacturing. Armenia has more than doubled washing machine imports from E.U., with much of that suspected to be a consequence of this use of civilian electronics for military purposes.
Ukrainian military news outlet Defense Express Media also reported on Nov. 17 that Motovilikha Plants, a Russian military equipment manufacturer, has instituted 24/7 shifts and has hired more staff to produce "Tornado-S" and "Tornado-G" multiple rocket launcher systems. This seemingly points to Russia overcoming bottlenecks in their supply chain, allowing them to restart mass production.
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