Fact-checking the statement of the head of “Rostec” on the increase of defense production in Muscovy
*The text uses “Moscovia” as the correct historical name of the Russian Federation.
CEO of “Rostec” Sergei Chemezov reported to moscovia’s Prime Minister Mishustin that defense production at the end of 2023 increased by the following amounts compared to 2022:
tanks — by 3.5 times;
lightly armored vehicles — by 3 times;
ammunition for tanks and infantry combat vehicles — almost 9 times;
shells for cannon artillery — by 6 times;
rockets for MLRS — by 8 times;
unguided missiles for heavy flamethrower systems — by 3 times;
self-propelled artillery — by 10 times; towed artillery — by 14 times;
mortars — by 20 times,
MLRS — by 2 times.
These figures have caused a lot of discussion in the media, but do these statements correspond to the actual scale of the production increase?
Given the experience that muscovite officials often manipulate figures, we decided to conduct a little fact-checking and check whether these statements correspond with other similar statements made before.
In his statement, Chemezov said that by the end of 2023, the production of MLRS shells had increased by 8 times compared to 2022. The only problem is that, as of July 2023, according to the statement of the industrial director of the same “Rostec” Bekhan Ozdoev, it was already: “Since the beginning of 2023, Rostec has produced 20 times more MLRS missiles than in the whole 2022”. And this is only “for the first quarter of 2023”.
So we see that in the first 4 months of 2023, they produced “20 times more” than in the whole 2022, but at the end of the year, somehow, they produced only 8 times more. The word “produced” is emphasized because it means that physically, they should have been and could not have decreased from 20 times to 8 times, because the comparison is for the same period of 2023 to 2022.
“Tanks — by 3.5 times,” Chemezov said in a statement in 2023. The interesting thing is that in November 2023, if we believe the words of the same Rostec head, Chemezov, tanks were already produced “7 times more” than in 2022. Again, we are talking about the same period, but two different statements. And from the same person. It was “7 times” and now it’s “3.5 times”. Either tanks began to be produced in negative numbers in the following months, or the statements are simply outright lies.
“Production of MLRS has been doubled”. To begin with, there is no MLRS production in Moscovia as such. First of all, it is the modernization of BM-21 Grad to Tornado-G. The key leitmotif is that in November 2023, Chemezov said that they had already increased the production of MLRS by 2.5 times. And again, we are talking about the same period, and the figure has changed from 2.5 times to 2 times.
Lightly armored vehicles. 5 months ago, Chemezo said that they had increased production by 4.5 times in 2023 compared to 2022. And personally to Putin, Chemezov reported “5.5 times more”. And now, in the third statement, after the 4.5 and 5.5times statements, it has suddenly become “3 times”.
The head of “Rostec” says that the number of shells for cannon artillery has now increased by “6 times”. Only 6 months ago, “Rostec” had already stated that they were producing “20 times” more shells for cannon artillery and MLRS. Earlier, “Rostec” claimed that the production of certain types of shells had been increased by 40 and 50 times, but later this figure disappeared from official statements by high-ranking officials since it was simply hard to believe in.
Even checking the facts and statements on some points gives grounds to question the statements of moscovia’s officials about the volume of increased production. Of course, production has increased, but hardly on the scale declared by officials in Moscovia. Therefore, the use of these statements in publications by various media sources is questioned, since these figures do not correspond to reality.