The United States will soon be unable to provide certain types of weaponry to the Ukrainians as supplies are being used up faster than they can be replaced.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Washington has become the largest supplier of arms to the country.
Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent analysis that it could take years for the US to replenish its equipment.
A US military official acknowledged on condition of anonymity that Washington is learning from the conflict about the need for weapons of mass destruction.
The United States slashed defense spending after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, forcing American defense firms to drastically reduce production.
The US government needs to convince the industry to reopen assembly lines and restart production of items that haven't been made in years.
Some US-supplied equipment has become a symbol of the war in Ukraine, such as the Javelin anti-tank weapons that were used to blunt the Russian advance on the capital, and the Himars, a precision rocket system now playing a key role in counter-offensives against Russia.
US stocks of weapons for Himars, which fire rockets with a range of more than 50 miles, are running low.
If the United States sent a third of the inventory to Ukraine, they would get thousands of rockets. Cancian worked on weapons procurement for the US government and said that when the inventory is exhausted there are no alternatives.
5000 a year is how much production is done. Although the United States is working to increase that amount, and money has recently been allocated for that purpose, it will take a long time.
production of a weapon that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance is only about 1,000 a year, despite the fact that the United States has provided 8,500 Javelin missiles.
In May, the US government ordered $350 million worth of missiles, but it will take several years to replenish their inventories.
Three-quarters of the total amount delivered by all Western countries has been supplied by the United States.
Cancian said that the amount of shells Washington has provided is close to the limit that the US is willing to give without risk to its own warfighting capabilities.
The Pentagon wants to increase US production of these shells to 36,000 in three years. It would only bring annual production to 432,000, which is less than half of what has been provided.
Laura Cooper, a senior defense department official, said Tuesday that the US defense industry production is speeding up.
She said that the United States would provide security assistance to the Ukrainian people for as long as it took.
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