U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) today said that “we are depleting” missiles “faster than we can replenish them…and then we send them to Ukraine.

“We need missiles, and America doesn’t make nearly enough of those, not for our own security, and certainly not enough to support both the Ukraine conflict and, God forbid, a conflict that might occur in East Asia,” Vance said in a Senate floor speech earlier today. “So let’s specify that a little bit more. We are right now depleting critical munitions, missiles, artillery shells and bullets faster than we can replenish them.”

“And then we send them to Ukraine,” said Vance. “I’m sorry. Why does that make an ounce of sense for our own national security? Shouldn’t we rebuild our own manufacturing capacity before we spend all of it on Ukraine?”

Vance, 38, was first elected to serve Ohio in the U.S. Senate in the Nov. 2022 General Election. He defeated U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), winning 53% to Ryan’s 47%.

Vance served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007, graduated from Ohio State University, and received a J.D. from Yale University Law School.

He also is the author of the the 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which reached The New York Times Bestseller list in 2016 and 2017.