A Russian cruise missile launch (Photo: TASS).
Newsweek reported that during a visit to the Russian Tactical Missiles Corporation in Moscow on March 14, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a doubling of the production of precision-guided weapons.
"The main task now is to double production. I think you can do it. Not only our enemies do not have such weapons, but the armed forces of all other countries in the world do not have them either," Shoigu said.
According to Mr. Shoigu, the Russian Tactical Missiles Corporation has the necessary resources, highly qualified specialists and high-quality production facilities. Therefore, the requirement to double the production of precision weapons is difficult but achievable.
The Russian Tactical Missiles Corporation was established in January 2002, specializing in the production of weapons such as multi-purpose guided missiles, anti-ship and anti-radar missiles, air-to-air missiles, guided bombs, and naval weapons.
Mr. Shoigu's order comes amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides are said to be running out of weapons after more than a year of fighting.
In January, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Russia had used up most of its inventory of Kalibr cruise missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles and Iranian-made drones. Citing intelligence sources, he said that Russia had only about 19% of its strategic missiles, 78% of its tactical missiles and 12% of its drones made in Iran.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said Russia had less than 100 Iskander missiles left, forcing them to use S-300 and S-400 missiles instead. "The enemy is using their potential, because Russia has a lot of S-300 missiles already produced," he said.
Since October last year, Russia has been conducting large-scale missile and drone strikes on a series of important infrastructure targets in Ukraine. These strikes have consumed a large number of missiles and drones from Moscow. Western analysts believe that this is the reason why Russia has begun to reduce the frequency of large-scale strikes and use many different types of missiles in one attack.
Most recently, on March 9, Russia fired about 95 missiles in a raid, including 6 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. Observers believe this is a sign that Russia is running out of guided missiles.
"Western sanctions are significantly limiting Russia's missile production capacity. The number of missiles they used in the raid on the morning of March 9 is equivalent to a month's missile production," a Ukrainian official commented.
Margo Grosberg, head of Estonia's intelligence agency, assessed in late January that Russia only had enough missiles left for another 3-4 months.
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