US Weapons Requests
Defense officials said as other nations also witness the impact of US weapons in the Ukraine war, the Pentagon is getting more proposals for them including the multiple-launch rocket system, high-tech that Ukrainian forces have successfully used against Russian ammunition depots and other supplies.
Bill LaPlante, the department undersecretary for acquisition, said
Pentagon has been functioning with the defense industry to expand production to fulfill both the US and other international needs for particular US weapons including some countries already asking about purchasing the HIMARS or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. U.S. has to replace the HIMARS systems at a projected cost of about $33 million sent to Ukraine and also anticipate the future demands in foreign sales.
As per Pentagon, the department is already operating to replace about $7 billion in US weapons and equipment that was taken off so it could be produced quickly in Ukraine. In that almost $1.2 billion has already been acquired, and half of that was for Stinger missiles.
Congress provided for such replacements of $12.5 billion so far this year, as well as another $6 billion to buy weapons and equipment directly from industry to send to Ukraine.
Some of the money will be paid to support the defense industrial base so that companies can either expand or speed up their production.
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LaPlante said, “We stay committed to get things on the agreement as quickly as feasible, eventually to send a clear and persistent request signal to our associates in the industry,”. For instance, currently, the industry is producing about 14,400 rounds of ammunition for the Howitzer artillery gun every month, but the plan is to work up to 36,000 a month in about three years.
He stated even that amount can not meet the demands of US weapons. So the U.S. Army has reached other companies around the world to buy 250,000 rounds of that ammunition.
In other cases, LaPlante said, there are manageable solutions to increasing the production capacity and it requires more creativity. Restarting the production of Stinger missiles, he said, forced contractors to come up with alternative parts to replace outdated ones.
Sasha Baker, the defense undersecretary for the procedure, said the new U.S. defense attache in Kyiv, Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon is trying to deliver a greater understanding of what capacities the Ukrainian forces are using most.
She said Harmon appointed in July, delivers the U.S. better direction and the ability to obtain “real-time data about what the Ukrainians are noticing and experiencing and what they might require.”
LaPlante said he will fulfill purchase and weapons officials from other NATO and allied nations later this month to speak regarding how to resolve supply chain problems and ramp up production of required equipment. He said the group will also examine how the different nations can improve the use of equipment that is alike and works more easily with other allies’ systems.
In terms of overall spending on military support, the US had committed more than any other country up to the beginning of August.
Poland and the UK had pledged the second and third largest amounts.
The US announced additional military support on 24 August of about $3bn and a further on 9 September $675m for weapons to Ukraine, bringing the US total assistance to roughly $12.5bn.
And the UK also pledged in August to give an additional £54m ($64m) in military aid to Ukraine.
President Zelensky has pleaded for more allocation and has said the monthly cost of defense for Ukraine was about $5bn (£4.1bn).
Click here, If you want to read which country is giving the most after the US.
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