With the arrival of the first winter in the war between Russia and Ukraine, stocks of advanced armaments in the United States are running out. And as the warehouses are emptied, the amount of ammunition available for transfer to Kiev is decreasing, American sources tell CNN.
The burden on the weapons stockpiles and the ability of the US industrial base to meet demand – is one of the main challenges facing the Biden administration. This, when the US continues to send billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia.
One of the sources said stocks of some systems were “dwindling” after nearly nine months of sending supplies to Kiev during a high-intensity war. Because there is a “finite amount” of excess inventory that the US has available to ship.
Among the weapons systems of particular concern for US stockpiles are 155 mm artillery ammunition and Stinger anti-aircraft shoulder-fired missiles, the sources said.
Several sources also raised concerns about the production of additional weapons systems, including HARMs anti-radiation missiles, GMLRS rockets and Javelin anti-tank missiles. The concern is despite the US increasing production of these and other systems. .
For the first time in two decades, the US is not directly involved in the conflict after withdrawing from Afghanistan and moving into an advisory role in Iraq. Without the need to produce weapons and munitions for war, the US has not produced the quantities needed to sustain a sustained, high-intensity conflict.
The inventory of the warehouses ignited a debate in the American security community between two approaches. There is indeed a consensus that the US will not be able to supply luxury weapons to Ukraine indefinitely. However, some voices claim that the minimum threshold in the warehouses depends on how much risk the Pentagon is willing to take.
Many officials stressed that the US would never compromise its readiness, and each shipment was measured against its impact on US strategic reserves and war plans. Both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley are closely monitoring U.S. stockpile levels, officials said.
One reason for concern about low stockpiles is that the U.S. industrial base is struggling to keep up with demand quickly enough, the sources said. In addition, European allies cannot fulfill enough requests from Ukraine’s military due to the need to maintain supplies for their forces.
“It’s getting harder and harder,” Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN. “This is a war that we thought would end in a few days but now years may pass. At a time when global supply chains are dissolving, the West will have a very difficult time meeting these very high level demands.”
Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder told CNN that the US would continue to support Ukraine “as long as necessary”, while adding that no arms transfers to Ukraine have reduced US military readiness.
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, told reporters at a recent roundtable that there is “no doubt” that the arms pipeline to Ukraine has put pressure on US stockpiles and the industrial base, as well as its allies.
“We are seeing the first example in many decades of a real high-intensity conventional conflict and the pressure it is putting not only on the countries involved, but on the defense industrial bases that support it. In this case, supporting Ukraine,” Kahl said.
“I will say that Secretary (Lloyd) Austin has been focused from the beginning to make sure we don’t take unnecessary risk. That is, we haven’t reduced our reserves to such an extent that it undermines our readiness and our ability to respond to another major case elsewhere in the world.”
Last Tuesday, the Biden administration sent a letter to Congress requesting additional funding of $37.7 billion for Ukraine. The funding includes $21.7 billion for the Pentagon. These will be invested in part to address the lack of weapons.