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Russia's drone production capacity exceeds the total of NATO and Ukraine. European Allied Forces Command is very concerned and calls for revitalizing Europe's defense industry. No one could have expected that the production goals achieved by both sides with national efforts were instantly surpassed by a little-known private Chinese company.

Recently, Russia's "Geranium-2" drone factory was reported by Russia's红星 Television. In the program, Russian Ministry of Defense officials stated that Russia's suicide drone production capacity has already exceeded the total of NATO and Ukraine.

【The Geranium-2 Drone Factory in Russia】

How much is Russia's drone production capacity? According to U.S. media "The Drive," currently, Russia can produce at least 2,000 "Geranium-2" suicide drones per month.

NATO's economy is 25 times that of Russia, but it still cannot produce 2,000 suicide drones in a month.

It is no wonder that General Glickwich, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, repeatedly emphasized in recent public activities that NATO's defense industry urgently needs to be fully mobilized.

If Russia devours Ukraine and then turns its knife towards the Baltic states, this drone production capacity would be completely unable to threaten Russia.

【General Glickwich, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO】

But to be honest, although the drone production capacity competition between NATO and Russia seems tense and intense, from China's perspective, it is nothing more than "children fighting."

Because last week, a domestic private drone manufacturing company promoted its military-grade loitering munition on social media, stating that the production capacity of this type of drone can reach 20,000 units per month.

The product photos show that this military-grade loitering munition looks almost identical to Russia's "Geranium-2" suicide drone. The manufacturer also hinted that this type of drone can also carry a payload of 50 kilograms and fly over 1,000 kilometers.

【Domestic private enterprise can produce 20,000 drones per month】

In short, Chinese private enterprises can easily produce similar products to the "Geranium-2," and their monthly production capacity can be expanded to 20,000 units in a short time.

This means that while Russia needs national efforts to increase its suicide drone production capacity to thousands per month, a little-known private Chinese enterprise can achieve 20,000 units per month, which is 10 times that of Russia.

It is not surprising that Chinese private enterprises can achieve this. This mainly benefits from China's complete industrial chain and supply chain system. Enterprises can directly obtain all raw materials, components, and even some finished products needed for drone production through this system.

At the same time, other upstream and downstream enterprises supplying parts to drone companies can also rely on this system to obtain the raw materials they need.

【Domestic suicide drones displayed at the Zhuhai Air Show】

All nodes in the process can operate efficiently, ensuring that the production work of drone companies is not slowed down by the "bucket effect."

For example, the "Geranium-2" suicide drone produced by Russia requires the use of small two-stroke engines as power sources.

Although Russia is capable of producing such engines, the output is not high. Many "Geranium-2" still need to use imported engines, which indirectly reduces the efficiency of Russia's drone production expansion.

On the contrary, China's annual motorcycle production is close to 20 million units, which indicates that the annual output of two-stroke engines is at least 20 million units, or even several times that number.

Notably, according to official statistics, there are more than 100 large private drone manufacturing companies in China.

【Domestic suicide drones】

If each company has a production capacity of 20,000 suicide drones per month, this is at least 2 million drones per month in war potential, which is 1,000 times the current drone production capacity of Russia.

Notably, Russia is also planning to seek technical workers from North Korea to expand drone production, expecting to increase from 2,000 to 5,000 units. But even so, it still cannot reach a fraction of China's drone production capacity.

This is far from the limit of China's drone industry. Because the private enterprises mentioned earlier that can produce 20,000 drones per month are not even close to the standard of "large" enterprises.

The production capacity of these large drone enterprises will be higher, which may be an astronomical number that NATO and Russia together cannot even approach.

However, this is just the production capacity of Chinese private enterprises. When adding in state-owned enterprises and military enterprises, if China really enters a mobilization state and produces drones with full effort, producing millions per month is not difficult.

This is certainly not good news for the United States.

【U.S. domestic suicide drones】

Because the Pentagon has been actively promoting the so-called "low-cost cruise missile" plan in recent years.

The purpose of this plan is to allow the U.S. military to overwhelm the PLA's defense system with a large number of low-cost missiles during wartime.

Therefore, the U.S. is also developing similar "Geranium-2" suicide drones, and is actively developing low-cost cruise missiles using small turbojet engines.

However, the current situation is that the U.S. drone production capacity has been left far behind by China. And it can be foreseen that if the U.S. finds it so difficult to produce drones, the production capacity of turbojet cruise missiles, which require higher craftsmanship and longer and more complex supply chains, will be even lower.

【U.S. Red Wolf Low-Cost Cruise Missile】

Keep in mind that if the Sino-U.S. competition is about who can produce more advanced and better-performing missiles, this contest may not be decided in the short term.

After all, the U.S. still holds a large amount of cutting-edge technology and leads China in some frontier fields.

Now, the U.S. has moved the arena to the "low-cost missile" field, aiming to compete with China on production capacity and cost-effectiveness. A financial superpower that has already industrialized itself against the newly emerged world's largest industrial country, the outcome is obviously without any doubt.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7529469578116629042/

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