US ammunition supplies dwindle as Ukraine war depletes stockpiles

The United States will soon be unable to supply Ukraine with particular types of munitions that are crucial to Kyiv's fight against Russia's invasion,given that supplies are depleting more quickly than they can be renewed.

Since Russia began its invasion on February 24 with more than $26.4 billionin military aid, Washington has grown to be by far the largest supplier of armaments to Ukraine.

However, the US inventories of some equipment are "approaching the minimal levels needed for war preparations and training," and refilling to pre-invasion levels might take years, according to Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a recent analysis.

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Under the condition of anonymity, a US military official stated that Washington is "learning lessons" from the fight about the ammunition demands in a great power war, which are "much more" than anticipated.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States severely cut defence spending, forcing American defence corporations to drastically reduce production. As a result, their numbers fell from dozens to single digits.

The US government must now persuade the industry to restart manufacture of weapons like Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which have not been produced since 2020, and reactivate assembly lines.

Several pieces of US-supplied equipment have come to represent the conflict in Ukraine, including the Javelin anti-tank weapons that Kyiv's forces used extensively to halt Russia's advance on the capital and the Himars, a precision rocket system that is now a key component of counteroffensives against Moscow's forces in the east and south.

However, US supplies of ammunition for Himars, which launches GMLRS rockets with a range of more than 80 kilometres, are running low.

While the US has given Kyiv roughly 8,500 Javelin missiles, the weapon that has come to represent Ukrainian resistance is only produced at a rate of about 1,000 per year.
The US government placed an order for the missiles in May for $350 million, but it will still be a while before the stockpiles are refilled.

According to official Pentagon figures, the United States has also sent to Kyiv more than 800,000 NATO standard 155mm artillery shells, or 75% of the total amount delivered by all Western nations.

The Pentagon has stated that it intends to boost US production of these shells from the current monthly average of 14,000 to 36,000 within the next three years.

The annual production would still only reach 432,000, which is less than half of what has been given to Ukraine over the past seven months.

(With inputs from agencies)

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