Matt Bush, FISM News
The U.S. has provided billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, much of it in the form of weapons and ammunition. Now, according to one defense official who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. stockpiles of some types of ammunition have become “uncomfortably low.”
That defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that levels are not yet critical because America is not directly engaged in a major military conflict, but “it is not at the level we would like to go into combat.”
In other words, the United States may be one surprise attack — remember 9/11 and Pearl Harbor — away from a war we’re not equipped to fight.
Of particular concern is the low level of 155mm ammunition. 155mm ammunition can be fired from U.S.-made M777 Howitzers, weighing almost 100 pounds per round, and can accurately hit targets more than 10 miles away.
M777 Howitzers with 155mm are used often enough by the military to cause concern if inventory is running low. According to the WSJ, “The U.S. military used a howitzer as recently as last week to strike at Iranian-backed groups in Syria.”
As of August 24, the U.S. has sent 806,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition along with a total of $14 billion worth of weaponry to Ukraine in total after an almost $3 billion pledge at the end of August.
When the U.S. pledged almost $3 billion worth of aid to Ukraine on August 23, President Joe Biden declared, “America would stand with Ukraine’s armed forces today and every day to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.”
While Biden’s rhetoric and policies show strong support for Ukraine as they hold off the Russian invasion, many in Washington believe the president should do more to ensure the safety of Americans at home.
Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington, criticized the decisions that let the shortage happen.
“This was knowable. It was foreseeable. It was forewarned, including from industry leaders to the Pentagon. And it was easily fixable. There are some problems you can buy your way out of. This is one of them,” Eaglen said.
At a briefing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on July 29, a senior defense official was asked about ammunition stockpiles being depleted by the war.
Yeah, you know, I’m not going to talk about the actual inventory. I would tell you this, listen, we’ve spent a lot of time making sure that we are able, first of all, to defend the homeland, meet all of our requirements around the world if called on, and we take right in it very, very seriously. So, anytime we make a decision, whether it’s a Javelin or a HIMARS, we’re assessing the readiness risks associated with that piece of equipment, so we don’t have any concerns from the U.S. military perspective, at this point.
The following month, the U.S. Naval Institute published an article entitled “The Dangerous Depletion of U.S. Weapon Arsenals” on its own website, seemingly contradicting the words of the defense department official just weeks later.