The Budget Committee of the Bundestag "approved" the release of 97.4 million euros, which is necessary for the preparation for the resumption of the production of SMArt 155 guided artillery 155mm shells.
Part of this money will go towards resuming the production of some electronic components for the SMArt 155, as such components are not currently manufactured or supplied, Defense24 reports.
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The article explains that production of SMArt 155 projectiles took place in the early 2000s. At that time, the concern consisting of the companies Rheinmetall and Diehl produced a total of 12,000 shells of this type, of which 9,000 units were ordered by the Bundeswehr, and the other 3,000 units were ordered by the armies of Australia, Greece and Switzerland.
Apparently, the German military at the time thought that 9,000 SMArt 155 shells would be a "decent replacement" for 300,000 155mm cluster munitions and several tens of thousands of cluster warhead rockets for the M270 systems, because Germany at that time took a course to abandon cluster munitions due to the 1997 Ottawa Convention. But the practice of 2022 showed that the Bundeswehr had miscalculated, and now it will literally take years to make up for lost time. However, the russo-Ukraine war showed that the Bundeswehr had miscalculated, and now it will literally take years to make up for lost time.
It will take Germany at least 5 years to resume production of the SMArt 155. And planned investments of almost 100 million euros for resuscitation of SMArt 155 production chains is really high.
The country plans to cope at least by 2027. But as of now the maximum that the Bundeswehr expects is 10,000 shells with a total cost of 810 million euros, the average cost of ammunition will be 81,000 euros per unit.
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