Thanks for your comment – I believe what you write to be true, and that the confusion is increased by need to standardise (apparently there are 17 different EU ‘gun systems) and by the US pressure on EU to buy US arms, which must discourage EU manufacturers
Here are two more reports confirming low USEU arms production
Le Figaro reports from the frontline
Includes many complaints about the poor quality of outdated armaments delivered by the EU – naming Leopards and RAK’s - ‘as delivered nothing worked, we had to spend months repairing them, it would have been better had they sent us tanks in working order’- plus bitterness over the tiny quantities of artillery shells
“Un commandant d'une unité de chars Leopard allemand, devenu célèbre en Ukraine pour avoir rejeté dix Leopard hors d'usage livrés par un allié européen, peine à dissimuler son amertume. « On nous a renvoyé dix tanks, puis dix autres, raconte-t-il. Aucun n'était en état de marche. C'est du vieux matériel, usé. Au bout de plusieurs mois de réparations, on a réussi à faire fonctionner 12 chars. Mais on manque cruellement de munitions. Nous apprécions beaucoup le soutien de nos amis occidentaux. Mais ils auraient pu réviser le matériel avant de nous le donner. Il nous faut des chars en état de fonctionner ». Embarrassée par les critiques envers les alliés, une communicante de l'armée ordonne au journaliste étranger de rayer ses notes. « Ne vous laissez pas faire, il faut dire la vérité chez vous », implore un artilleur discrètement, en aparté.”
The US in talks with Turkey and Greece to buy 155mm shells – but both in nominal amounts : 75,000 from Greece, and a ‘small amount’ from Turkey, according to a named consultant
‘“The numbers wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands, but it could be a good opportunity for the Turkish defence sector to work together with the American counterparts,” he told Middle East Eye. “MKE through its subsidiaries is already substantially increasing its 155mm production lines.” ‘
This resembles desperation – the USEU ‘plans’ to buy as well as to increase shell production to 200,000 per month ‘in 2025’, a suspiciously cautious phrasing – Nato announced ‘plans’ to contract production for 220,000 shells for $1.2B
But the small quantity buys noted above contradict any notions that this ‘plan’ has yet had any incidence