U.S. Troops Running Out of Arms and Munitions as Biden Keeps Sending More to Ukraine
By Mike LaChance Mar. 7, 2023
Yet here in the United States, arms manufacturers can’t keep up with demand, and our own armed forces are already running dangerously low.
At what point does someone in Washington step up and demand that our own national defense is at risk?
Jed Babbin writes at the American Spectator:
Biden has sent roughly one-third of our Javelin anti-tank missiles and one third of our Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. Ukraine is expending those weapons and others faster than we can manufacture them.
We normally produce between 1,000 and 2,100 Javelins each year. The Army is trying to get industry to up the rate to 4,000 each year. Faint hope.
By some estimates, Ukraine is firing six to seven thousand 155 mm artillery shells every day. At that rate, they could expend the entirety of Britain’s stockpile of NATO-standard 155 mm shells in just eight days. Ammunition for the U.S. HIMARS (high-mobility artillery rocket system) and other munitions are also being expended at tremendous rates.
The problem we are having is that, despite some efforts to stimulate production in the U.S., the supply is lagging far behind the demand.
According to a Center for Strategic and International Studies report I mentioned last week, some credible estimates are that we would run out of ammunition — missiles, artillery shells, etc. — in one week if the Chinese attacked Taiwan at this point and if — a big “if” — Biden decided to defend Taiwan. He has said we would do so four times and each time his cabinet has assured the Taiwanese that we hadn’t changed our “One China” policy, which means we wouldn’t defend Taiwan.
The problem is greatly exacerbated by supply chain problems. A friend of mine who is the CEO of a medium-sized aerospace firm that produces, among other things, radar systems told me that parts he orders today can’t be delivered for at least eighteen months.
More from the Epoch Times:
U.S. Army officials are in the process of ramping up production to overcome challenges associated with replenishing domestic stockpiles of munitions that were either sold to Ukraine or would be needed for a potential fight in the Indo-Pacific, according to Assistant Secretary of the Army Douglas Bush.
The Army is “now in execution mode,” ramping up production to refill quickly draining stockpiles, although production timelines for many munitions have been complicated by complex supply chains and security requirements, according to Bush.
He also said that it’s impossible to tell just what the United States’ needs would be in the future because of the open-ended nature of the war in Ukraine, although requirements would likely be higher due to increased international tensions.
“The long-term challenge will be how much of that capacity can we sustain over time, post-conflict,” Bush said. “We don’t know how long the conflict will last. We don’t know how low our stocks will be.”
The United States cannot ignore our own national security concerns while sending an endless supply of weapons and ammo to Ukraine.
The Biden administration is putting America’s safety at risk.