How after clearing their TNT stocks US and Nato relied on imports from Ukrainian for missile making but Russians easily cut off supplies
Besides the plant in Poland, production of TNT is now concentrated in China and India. Customs records examined show at least 1,200 tonnes of TNT were exported from India in 2023 and 2024 to arms makers that supply Western forces. India also shipped large volumes of the explosive fillers RDX and HMX to Poland’s Nitro-Chem.
Report: Failure by US, NATO to prepare for war against Russia is down to military leaders, Pentagon officials, defence contractors and politicians
In the years between Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and its 2022 invasion, for example, repeated warnings from top NATO commanders and from officials who operated or supervised US munitions plants went largely unheeded. They advised their governments, both publicly and privately, that the alliance’s munitions industry was ill-equipped to surge production should war demand it. Because of the failure to respond to those warnings, many artillery production lines at already-ancient factories in the United States and Europe slowed to a crawl or closed altogether.
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