From time to time, ordinary citizens face the prices of modern weaponry, and as a result the level of shock depends only on the preparedness of the person. A fighter like the F-16 costs about 150 million dollars, the Leopard 2A7 tank costs about 27.36 million dollars per unit.
Also, the current price tag for a tracked infantry fighting vehicle is about 10 million dollars, and a modern wheeled combat vehicle is 5 million. Or that the 155-mm artillery round now costs 3.3 thousand euros according to new contracts, but the high-precision Excalibur is worth 130 thousands of dollars.
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At the same time, these are still "big things", but what about ordinary cartridges? In this case, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine disclosed the cost of the 7.62 mm ammunition in order to remove any questions regarding their cost. Although if desired, the general prices are available on the Internet in terms of the civilian market.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine handed over the relevant actual prices to Glavkom, which published the following data regarding the cost of cartridges for the Armed Forces of Ukraine:
Automatic "intermediate" 7.62x39 cartridge (for AK, AKM) is currently offered by the Macedonian company ATS Group at 0.36 euros per cartridge without shipping costs and due for delivery in the second quarter of 2024. This is approximately UAH 14. That is, one AKM magazine is 420 UAH, which, after squeezing the trigger, can be released in three seconds.
But this is a "mass" cartridge, in the case of the 7.62x54R machine gun (for PKs, PKMs), for example, the Polish company AMMOGROM offers them for 0.415 euros per one, with shipping to Lviv. That is, 16.3 UAH for one and a box of 100 cartridges for PKM is already 1633 UAH. Ukrainian companies can supply more expensively in the range of UAH 25-30, depending on the volumes and terms, since "it is needed here and now."
One should not forget that in addition to the Soviet 7.62, there are NATO 7.62x51, which are the standard machine gun cartridges and ammunition for sniper rifles, and the latter has much stricter requirements for quality and accuracy. Sniper 7.62x51 are offered by Ukrainian company Ukrop, which offers them UAH 65 per unit. Similar with the Czech AKM Group-CZ: 2.40 euros per unit or 94.5 UAH.
And if you may get the impression that a sniper "target cartridge" for UAH 65 is expensive, then the real surprise will be the cost of the Ukrainian-made .50 BMG cartridge for the famous Barrett rifles: UAH 464 per unit in the armor-piercing version.
And that’s extremely important, as attention should also be paid to the fact that cartridges can be ordinary, armor-piercing (and with different armor penetration), tracer, and so on, which dramatically affects the price.
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