The Pentagon’s top official for weapons acquisition tamped down fears that the U.S. effort to arm Ukraine is leading to a severe depletion of weapons stocks.
“We’re not running out of anything,” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said at a conference this week, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “In the papers, sometimes, it says, ‘we’ve run out of X or Y,’ because of aid to Ukraine, but that’s not true.” LaPlante was speaking at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technology Institute on Monday when he made the comments.
The U.S. has transferred over $43 billion worth of materiel to Ukraine since February 2022, including over 2,000 Stinger missile systems and 10,000 Javelin missile systems, according to the Pentagon.
The Biden administration has relied on a special authority called presidential drawdown to rapidly transfer weapons that are already in U.S. stocks. On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced its 45th drawdown shipment to Ukraine since 2021, a $250 million package that includes HIMARS rocket systems, Javelin anti-tank systems, 155 millimeter ammunition, and other equipment. In recent weeks, the administration has also used drawdown authority to arm Taiwan.
Drawdown shipments have buttressed the Ukrainian government’s defenses, but industry players and defense officials have also warned that there’s been a severe depletion of U.S. stocks as the war has ground on.
Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in December that Washington had burned through the equivalent of 13 years of Stinger production and five years of Javelin production in the first ten months of the war. “The question is, how are we going to resupply, restock inventories,” he said.
And LaPlante’s optimistic outlook isn’t shared by all U.S. officials. During a conference in January, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro reportedly said that it would be “challenging” to maintain production at levels that would fulfill U.S. needs and anticipated future drawdown shipments for Ukraine.
But the U.S. military has partnered with various industries since the start of the war to boost production of highly sought after weapons and munitions. For instance, the Pentagon has awarded contracts to increase production of 155-milimeter ammunition, which is central to Ukrainian forces’ operations. Earlier this year, President Biden opted to transfer cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military, saying that low levels of normal 155-milimeter ammo remaining in U.S. stockpiles justified the controversial move.
LaPlante said at the conference this week that the U.S. has been very deliberate about making sure that transfers to Ukraine do not harm America’s readiness.
“Every item that is decided and taken from the U.S. stock and provided to the Ukrainians, the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] and secretary [of defense] go through it, and they look exactly at what is the effect for readiness. And if they think it’s any impact, negative on readiness, or increases risk . . . we won’t do it,” he said Monday, according to the Pentagon.
“By definition, if it’s taken out of drawdown, the assessment’s been made [that] we can do it and we can manage the risk,” LaPlante said.
According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, LaPlante also highlighted the Pentagon’s shift toward awarding multi-year contracts that help defense contractors anticipate demand over a longer period of time.
Recent contracts to backfill U.S. stocks include a $7 billion deal for greater Javelin production, and U.S. industry players are also proceeding with plans to sell certain systems to key U.S. allies.