The United States is close to running out of opportunities to continue delivering military aid to Ukraine, while Washington's concern about a possible confrontation with Russia is growing, Fox News reported on Saturday, citing sources.
Those that have been following the deliveries, undoubtedly noticed that the Weapons shipments to Ukraine have been rather small compared to this summer.
Washington intends to slow down the delivery of modern weapons to Ukraine, including HIMARS missile defense systems, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger air defense systems, and M-777 howitzers, the broadcaster reported.
What will Ukraine do, hurl rocks and memes, and make persuasive interpretive dances at the Russian artillery, armor, and air?
At the same time, according to a congressional source, the risks of an escalation of the conflict with Russia are also forcing the US authorities to reduce their activity in the supply of arms, although the possibilities for providing Kiev with new military aid packages still remain.
The US is worried about the risk of escalation after bombing pipelines and giving the green light for a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge? They dangle the possibility of future aid packages only to soften the blow of reducing aid, probably because they don't want the blowback of the strange Woe Me, Ukraine's been waging war for 8 years on Donbass, but we are the real victims demonstrations.
More, from two weeks ago:
In the U.S. weapons industry, the normal production level for artillery rounds for the 155mm howitzer — a long-range heavy artillery weapon currently used on the battlefields of Ukraine — is about 30,000 rounds per year in peacetime.
The Ukrainian soldiers fighting invading Russian forces go through that amount in roughly two weeks.
Based on Ukrainian Figures they use about 6000 155mm shells a day. The Two Weeks is not even a full week based on the reported figures by Ukraine.
That’s according to Dave Des Roches, an associate professor and senior military fellow at the U.S. National Defense University. And he’s worried.
“I’m greatly concerned. Unless we have new production, which takes months to ramp up, we’re not going to have the ability to supply the Ukrainians,” Des Roches told CNBC.
Aww, it's a Professor.. explains his "estimation": living in the bubble of arrogance and incompetence born of willful ignorance.
Europe is running low, too. “The military stocks of most [European NATO] member states have been, I wouldn’t say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said earlier this month.
But this war hasn't even started.
Out of the 370,000 reservists and volunteers set to mobilize, not even 10% have entered combat, in the next two weeks Putin claimed the remaining 78,000 who are yet to be mobilized out of the 300,000 reservists will enter their week-long refresher course.
There was a turnover rate that hampered an expedient mobilization as thousands were refused for not being fit for service and thousands more cited medical or circumstantial objections.
By the time this war has begun, Ukraine had all but depleted the European Weapons Stocks on the first phase of the SMO, during which they enjoyed full infrastructure support and were facing a force a quarter of what it is poised to be in a relatively short time.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held a special meeting of the alliance’s arms directors on Tuesday to discuss ways to refill member nations’ weapons stockpiles.
Military analysts point to a root issue: Western nations have been producing arms at much smaller volumes during peacetime, with governments opting to slim down very expensive manufacturing and only producing weapons as needed. Some of the weapons that are running low are no longer being produced, and highly skilled labor and experience are required for their production — things that have been in short supply across the U.S. manufacturing sector for years.
And years to rectify before anything changes.
Indeed, Stoltenberg said during last week’s U.N. General Assembly that NATO members need to reinvest in their industrial bases in the arms sector.
“We are now working with industry to increase production of weapons and ammunition,” Stoltenberg told The New York Times, adding that countries needed to encourage arms makers to expand their capacity longer term by putting in more weapons orders.
But ramping up defense production is no quick or easy feat.
...
Is the U.S. ability to defend itself at risk?
The short answer: no.
The U.S. has been by far the largest supplier of military aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia, providing $15.2 billion in weapons packages to date since Moscow invaded its neighbor in late February. Several of the American-made weapons have been game changers for the Ukrainians; particularly the 155 mm howitzers and long-range heavy artillery like the Lockheed Martin
-made HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System). And the Biden administration has said it will support its ally Ukraine for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.That means a whole lot more weapons.
The U.S. has essentially run out of the 155 mm howitzers to give to Ukraine; to send any more, it would have to dip into its own stocks reserved for U.S. military units that use them for training and readiness. But that’s a no-go for the Pentagon, military analysts say, meaning the supplies reserved for U.S. operations are highly unlikely to be affected.
How can they fight an artillery war with no artillery?
Not only are they all but reduced to Ground equipment, with Drones being hacked and taken over by Russians, what they have of their Anti Air can't intercept Attack Drones, which have destroyed multiple such systems in the last few days, this is two such costly instances:
Since those two were likely all they had on that front, recently brought out there too, likely recent additions because the Russians have been steadily taking out their remaining fighters and helicopters 20+ miles from the front lines, deep in Ukrainian-held territory, from the Air, which only happens if the Ukrainians have no Anti-Air, not even MANPADS to harass the Russian Aircraft. I don't believe that in the dozens of such attacks the Russians lost even one fighter or helicopter.
The Ukrainian SAM systems have been taken out by Suicide Drones before, and will probably continue with the European variants which on paper are less capable than the S300.
Without any way to threaten the Russian Air, or artillery to target the Russian artillery and armor, the Ukrainians will be reduced to fast and lightweight ISIS-style truck and SUV civilian vehicle attacks, which are devastating when they go wrong, as even a bit of mud will make their would-be attack into a shooting gallery for the Russians, and that's if they won't run into a sadface mine first.
“There are a number of systems where I think the Department of Defense has reached the levels where it’s not willing to provide more of that particular system to Ukraine,” said Mark Cancian, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel and a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That’s because “the United States needs to maintain stockpiles to support war plans,” Cancian said. “For some munitions, the driving war plan would be a conflict with China over Taiwan or in the South China Sea; for others, particularly ground systems, the driving war plan would be North Korea or Europe.”
That's because they don't give a flying fuck about Ukraine, they have repeatedly advertised that they are using Ukraine to fight Russia "until the last Ukrainian". Russia doesn't pose a threat to the US other than its bottom line, and they are saying that they have no plans OR capability to take on the Bear directly.
Other weapons Ukraine relies on that are now classified as “limited” in the U.S. inventory include HIMARS launchers, Javelin missiles, Stinger missiles, the M777 Howitzer, and 155 mm ammunition.
It seems they are extending the promise of more military aid instead of actual deliveries, because "until the last Ukrainian" is seemingly a lot farther away than "the last HIMARS".
The Javelin, produced by Raytheon
and Lockheed Martin, has gained an iconic role in Ukraine — the shoulder-fired, precision-guided anti-tank missile has been indispensable in combating Russian tanks. But production in the U.S. is low at a rate of around 800 per year, and Washington has now sent some 8,500 to Ukraine, according to the CSIS — more than a decades’ worth of production.
This Javelin:
The Ukrainians themselves on different occasions have reported that the Javelins they received wouldn't turn on, and out of the ones they would get to fire, only a quarter, 25%, would engage the tank, the rest would fly right over.
Ukrainian soldiers take pictures of a mural titled ‘Saint Javelin’ dedicated to the U.S.-made portable surface-to-air missile has been unveiled on the side of a Kyiv apartment block on May 25, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The artwork by illustrator and artist Chris Shaw is in reference to the Javelin missile donated to Ukrainian troops to battle against the Russian invasion.
The caption should read St. Cope Tube.
President Joe Biden visited a Javelin plant in Alabama in May, saying he would “make sure the United States and our allies can replenish our own stocks of weapons to replace what we’ve sent to Ukraine.” But, he added, “this fight is not going to be cheap.”
The Pentagon has ordered hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of new Javelins, but ramping up takes time — the numerous suppliers that provide the chemicals and computer chips for each missile can’t all be sufficiently sped up. And hiring, vetting and training people to build the technology also takes time. It could take between one and four years for the U.S. to boost overall weapons production significantly, Cancian said.
More tithes are needed for St. Javelin to shine its glorious favor into Ukraine, not that they will get close to Armor, it's all Artillery and Sorties from behind the horizon and Drone Scouts to give the all-clear for advances, Russians aren't dumb.
From: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html
I'll take that as a whimpering yes, the Ukramorons et All are just above Empty.
Oh yeah, probably should have Trigger Warned the pro-Ukrainians. Not sorry.