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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Turkey is set to become the United States’ largest supplier of artillery shells as NATO allies have exhausted their stocks and now struggle to ship ammunition to Ukraine. Turkey’s indirect support for Ukraine is also supplemented by direct support, such as producing drones and warships, yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offers himself as a viable partner in searching for peace between Ukraine and Russia.
“Turkish supplies of trinitrotoluene, known as TNT, and nitroguanidine, which is used as a propellant, would be crucial in the production of Nato-standard 155mm calibre ammunition — potentially tripling production, according to officials familiar with the discussions,” a Bloomberg report said, adding: “Turkey is already on track to becoming the biggest seller of the artillery shells to the US as early as this year.”
The surge in demand has delayed global orders and has put pressure on defence supply chains, especially for components such as TNT. According to the outlet, to help alleviate this issue, Turkish defence company Repkon’s production lines are expected to produce about 30% of all US-made 155mm artillery shells by 2025.
The Pentagon said in a statement about investment in Texas’ defence industry with Turkish counterparts that working with allies “is key to building a global defence industrial base.”
Additionally, Washington purchased 116,000 rounds of battle-ready ammunition from Turkish company Arca Defense, with delivery expected later this year and further purchases believed to be concluding soon to be ready for delivery in 2025.
As Bloomberg admitted, “The US and European efforts are part of a race to catch up with Moscow, whose war machine has put it in a position to produce or procure – according to some estimates – 4 million rounds this year, including shipments from North Korea. By contrast, the European Union expects to triple its production of artillery shells this year to around 1.4 million units.”
It is unsurprising that Turkey has been awarded a lucrative contract, given the recent announcement that Erdogan will visit the White House on May 9, the first time since US President Joe Biden took office.
The agreement with Ankara also reveals a delicate balance between the NATO allies, whose relations have been strained by the Russian military operation in Ukraine and Turkey’s months-long block on Sweden’s membership in the Atlantic Alliance. However, with Turkey greenlighting Sweden’s accession and plans to contribute to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, the country is now being rewarded with export contracts and approval to upgrade its aging F-16 fighter jet fleet.
The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used by the Ukrainian military against Russian forces. The drone maker, Baykar, has initiated the construction of a factory in Ukraine, and the company’s CEO said in February that they aim to complete the project within approximately 12 months and produce around 120 units a year.
At the same time, it is recalled that in February, France, Greece, and Cyprus blocked financing for the supply of Bayraktar drones and artillery shells for Ukraine, which were to be purchased with European funds. Turkey was set to be financed from EU funds for some time, but once the order was confirmed, the three countries swiftly blocked the financing.
Although the initiative failed, the US recognised Turkey’s rapprochement with the West and is now rewarding the country with imports and exports in the defence sector. This is despite the fact that the issue of the acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 is not resolved, which is the reason Turkey was booted from the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet program to begin with.
Erdogan announced his offer to host a peace summit between Ukraine and Russia earlier this month following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Since the beginning, we have contributed as much as we could toward ending the war through negotiations,” Erdogan said. “We are also ready to host a peace summit in which Russia will also be included.”
Although Erdogan claims to have contributed as much as possible to ending the war through negotiations, his country has also contributed to prolonging it. It is also recalled that during Zelensky’s visit to Turkey, he visited the shipyard where the two corvettes are being built for the Ukrainian Navy. At the same time, Turkey is providing drones to the Ukrainian military and is now replenishing the US’ artillery stocks. This is even though Ukraine has no chance of winning the war, meaning Turkey is not an honest broker for peace.
this fucking shitty country and huge traitor at every moment
putin is an idiot for trusting them, russia sells its s-400 battery to turkish rats, while its syrian ally never received the s-300 it paid for, iran will never receive the s35
putins a bitch who gutted out russia. no one is afraid of russia not armenia not azeris or the turks truly pathetic dont deserve such huge land. useless
turkey is nato ally, they are restraint, but of course they have to cope with their forced man-in-the-middle position. own ambitions (ottoman empire reestablishment), us-nato ambitions and putin ambitions. and it’s not easy to make all that fit into one box. regardless what they do, there will always be one guy screaming “foul” !!
putin is just a wef chabad lubavitch jewish puppet, like most so called presidents of today. the stupid war he started in ukraine on 666-talmud numerologic date ( 24.f.2022 = 666) was the last straw that broke the camels (russias) back. judaism = highest form of satanism = russia is f*cked !!
hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahaha
even russia and america doing business what you on about business different matter. whore from south..
too much tequila again? watch your blood pressure. fucking erina.
finally a sensible article on a pro-russian website about turkey. it seems like every russian website i visit recently (including rt) is under the laughable delusion that turkey is some sort of a friend towards russia. rt is such a cuck website that they have even begun using their preferred name of “turkiye” when referring to turkey.
very good you can reduce russia-ukraine to a spelling dispute.
we can reduce you ass to rubble. also you and your kind neighbors can reduce bullshit to “spelling disupte” mister ubermench.
turkey, bulgaria. moldavia they all can produce ammunition cheap, and even some higher-grad weapon technology. and as soon as the jewish pro-communist-governments are expelled from europe and electrictiy prices and economy is freed from the death grip of the communist wef rothschild jwo’lers, even germany, denmark, austria etc. will be able to produce significant amounts of stuff again.
the governments of usa & western europe are fully infiltrated by pro-putin communists (mainly chabad & rothschild devote jews). they play the game – claiming to be opposed to putin – but do everything to destroy the usa & eu economies, and deliver just tiny completely insufficient amounts of weapons to ukraine, thus helping putin & their jwo-nwo to eradicate the white race and destroy advanced civilisation everywhere !
and to not getting me wrong – jewlensky, trump and macron, scholz, orban. elon musk, bill gates,g. soros & all these zeolots are of course also part of that big psychopathic, anti-human game, which aims at starting ww3, and forcing the white european nations to slaughter each other to the benefit of the hooknosed demonic world-jewry scum.
american dogs, death to all these terrorists
turkey, as in big chickens, have been a programmed nato proxy force for years to fight russia. for over a decade, the european elites have been passing on tons of military technology for them to develop and pass off as being “domestic” produced. in reality, turk turd technology ends with dried apricots.
they want to be known by the native spelling now, türkiye (derived from the latin for land of the turks) not turkey (large bird you roast at xmas). the us is continuing to use turkey so there’s an opportunity to gain their favour here!
its the trend all over the world.
very strange ukras cant name their capital themselves and be accepted and respected for that.
erdogan think turkey and russia are equal in military terms .because of putin lenient s to erdogan.he hope that spliting russia will eventually help him to have oil and gas control and oil transit through syria and azerbaijan.supres abkazia and south osetia and ripping caucasian oil.erdogans eyes on donbass rich agriculture grain and bolgorod region rich.their bid on russian oil refineries.
far out. there is already has pipeline-line from kirkuk to baniyas planned by opec.
turks are not in that.
the rest is crap too. a better one would woul ruusia used oil and gas themselves for simple and advaned prution. thats where the intertests are for ncreated wellfare and income by some export.
russia not even have plans for that making better schools and many more well educated middleclass people to produce and distribute.
erdogan can relax now that eu & usa need weapons from turkey for ukraine. russia is wasting its last white christian men & replacing them with tons of muslims from all around the world. (for example from tajikistan – moscow area is full of muslims/ but maybe you know already?). chechnya, ingushetia, dagestan same as turkmenistan is fully of turk-originated muslims – and will further or later rebell against putins puppets, and instead want to become part of the new ottoman empire.
erdogan is so deeply involved with his intellegence agence in crocus masacare in russia.that is why he is still quiete planing how to approach sleepy putin who is always pleasing him and making him favor agrement.whereby syrians dies every day.libyans,iraqis and russians.
after all those years dont not even get both dont care.
both are oppertonists of the worst kind.
turkey=disgusting savage quasi-country.
seveal coutries are and russia too.
danmark, for sure. i think you eat kebab all day every day.
the kebab ass to mouth swallower.
turks are shitty rats from outdoor toilet and shithole.
no. they are thelselves and behave nationalist just as fx russia.
there are not limist and only opportunities. but forget k e e p.
at goes for empires. spain, portugal, britts, france, india and japan too.
in the past there are many others. even romans forgot spend and income has to be in balance. and its also why ussr collpased russia for tjhe second time within 100 years.
mind your smiley language.. go back to your cave now nana calling you
the us: “god bless the usa” – one of the worst country in the world.
“israel”: “we are god chosen people” – animals.
turkey: “represent” itself as a leader among all the muslim nations – works and sleep with the us, “israel” and wahhabis.
clearly we can see something they all share here… false claims about themselves as been “chosen by god or they are better”…
the alternatives anytime is worse. you morons systemtictly are kept away from we live much better and longer here.
we havde lived as you do and decided not to. we are rewardd.
and when we tell you, we all are lies and anything we says are lies its even worse. putin and your system even has disconneted hell and heal.
you not even even respect ukras hve own choises. we do. by that they have options.
and we laugh and cry too. you even put our kapitisk economy in old colappsed emngls ecomy and conclude the dollar went down 3 times last wekk too. you see us freezing and starving too..
that was never a option. our systems are used to ups and down. its a very strong thing but of course we try to avoid downs.
i and most people dislike ergodan very much, but ypu are much worse.
its so funny most russians reallly pr pavlov could believe 4 to 15 longbearded ukras were on the road in a french car to odessa.
first of all his name is erdogay, and please respect erdogay pronouns bitch/gay/clown/hoe.
ah yes, what i said made you mad and now you are calling me a russian as if that means anything. but hey i take it lmfao.
also, try to stay on the main points or what i said in my comment pls, russia start their operation to stop ukraine to join nato and protect their country from nato – the end stfu.
don’t talk about topics you have no clue about, you know like economy… i know you think you are a professor in economics. it is okay take your drugs, you are also here at sf and from your language we all know you aren’t the smartest here.
edit: “you see us freezing and starving too..” ah yes somehow it got with what i said, you did that to yourselves clowns.
ah yes “we” this and that… what have you done? nothing, so drop the “we” you added nothing.
you morons started not 1 but 2 world wars and now looking to start the 3rd one stfu… kept away from everyone animals, look at middle east and eastern europe… it is all your works. iraqi wmds was in your assh0le and jews sent to palestine because of you animals.
it makes sense.
turkey many ago started to produce and invent weapons for own use. that partly should be financed better with export.
putin is a man of honour. erdogan has none.
so now the turks are the smart ones just like in the balcan wars the germans. in the balcan wars the germans send all east german weapons to turkey who then send them to bosnian muslims and croats. now the turks will sell them to the usa who will send them to ukraine and israel. who would think the turks will end up smarter in geopolitics then the western nations whose pawn they once were.
bisnian muslims? do you mean bosniaks by that? turk roaches are great friends with theirs servian cousins. stop using name of bosnian dynasty, dirt walach bag.
before that war all were called bosnians and all were called bosniaks. and bosnian muslims, bosnian orthodox and bosnian katholics are all bosnians. they should learn to coexist again that is why i use that name. cause under kotromanic bosnians off all confessoins lived in peace with each others (katholics, orthodox and bugumils). someone like kotromanic (not as king but polititian) is what bosnia needs.
turcia a fost si este o hiena si un adversar inclusiv pt china cu uigurii. maine, maine de ar putea ar ocupa insulele grecesti. au 3000-4000 de incalcari pe an de spatiu aerian al greciei.
iluzia unei prietenii cu turcia n ar trebui sa existe. are atat : stramtorile
au pus si ei umarul sa cada artsakhul
asteptam rachetele pa t rio t din fabricate in japonia. cred ca japonia si japonia imperiala ar trebui sa uite definitiv de kurile si sahalin, dar sa nu uite ca nu respecta femeia si ca bordelurille din corea si china vor fi vii in conștiința acestor tari
the little backstabbing sultan erdogan who still allows azeri oil to flow into israel is providing the ammunition to the us, which in turn delivers it to israel to continue their slaughter of innocent palestinians, all while talking tough about the israeli genocide.
am i wrong in recalling that russia went to edogans rescue when us attempted to coup his ass?
i am from ethnicity from turkey(i am not turk) some folks called me terrorist but it wasn’t turks who called me terrorist so the question is what makes different people look like terrorist
what makes a light-brown young man , an animal
people that are brainwashed by western us israel propaganda most likely and or they were/are soldiers or relatives of soldiers in wars started by the talmudic masonic pedos. the same creators of is is and al-cia-duh. they do false flag attacks and then blame it on muslims or whatever group they want to be hated.