Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday chewed out the chief engineer of the country’s leading producer of self-propelled artillery systems over what he suggested was the slow output at the manufacturing plant.
“Stop goofing around, guys,” Shoigu said during a tour of the Uraltransmash machine-building plant in the city of Yekaterinburg.
“We should have had these [artillery] machines working in full swing in 2023, but everything’s so calm here,” he added.
Uraltransmash, a subsidiary of the Rostec defense conglomerate’s UralVagonZavod company, produces trams but is better known for motorized artillery systems that it designs for the military.
Some of Uraltransmash’s most known products include the 2S3 Akatsiya, the 2S19 Msta and the 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV, which was first revealed in 2015 but was only put into service last year.
Uraltransmash CEO Oleg Yemelyanov told Shoigu during the tour that the plant saw a sixfold increase in the production of self-propelled artillery systems in 2023, according to a statement released by the Defense Ministry.
Shoigu, who noted the high demand for military hardware on the front line in Ukraine, ordered a report outlining faster output within a week and said the military plans to sign a long-term contract with Uraltransmash.
