Tag: weapons manufacturers

As he arms Ukraine, Biden readies new weapon pipelines for Eastern Europe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Top U.S. officials on Thursday unveiled $2.8 billion in new military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and Eastern European allies, marking a shift from just-in-time weapons transfers to Ukraine to a longer-term effort to equip nations all across NATO’s eastern front.

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“At some point, particularly if House Republicans win in the elections, I don’t know how we do this in December or in January, it’s going to be really, really difficult,” to get more aid packages passed, one Republican staffer admitted. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive political matters.

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“If there were a war in the Taiwan Strait right now, [there are] very serious concerns the U.S. would have sufficient munitions for any kind of prolonged conflict,” Jones said. “The industrial base right now is being severely tested.”

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Thursday’s transfer will pull more material from those stockpiles, including artillery and armored vehicles, bringing total U.S. drawdowns to $8.6 billion, and leaving about $2.9 billion left from the overall amount that Congress authorized to be sent to Ukraine in May. The Pentagon will need to use the funds by the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30 or else require a waiver from Congress to extend the authority.

As he arms Ukraine, Biden readies new weapon pipelines for Eastern Europe

Related:

Most-accurate US artillery shell Excalibur quietly added to Ukraine aid

Pentagon stockpiles ‘uncomfortably low’ due to Ukraine arms transfers: DoD

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Arms makers are licking their chops as defense officials worry about shortfalls in weapons stockpiles.

Pentagon stockpiles ‘uncomfortably low’ due to Ukraine arms transfers: DoD

Related:

Ukraine War Depleting U.S. Ammunition Stockpiles, Sparking Pentagon Concern

In recent weeks, the level of 155 mm combat rounds in U.S. military storage have become “uncomfortably low,” one defense official said. The levels aren’t yet critical because the U.S. isn’t engaged in any major military conflict, the official added. “It is not at the level we would like to go into combat,” the defense official said.

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In the U.S., it takes 13 to 18 months from the time orders are placed for munitions to be manufactured, according to an industry official. Replenishing stockpiles of more sophisticated weaponry such as missiles and drones can take much longer.

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Speaking on an earnings call July 19, Jim Taiclet, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp., said the Pentagon has yet to put the contracts in place or coordinate with industry to buy more supplies, a process that often takes two to three years.

China’s neighbors are buying US weapons Washington isn’t delivering

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China’s neighbors are buying US weapons Washington isn’t delivering

Even though the United States views these weapons sales as integral to deterring China from attacking Taiwan, some of the deals were publicly announced as far back as 2017.

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The reasons – government delays, supply chain issues and production requirements – are numerous, and the problem won’t be easy to fix, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Defense News.

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The U.S. government has approved the sale of 10 weapons systems Taiwan has yet to receive – some of which are not slated for delivery until the end of the decade.

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The United States has flooded billions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine, including items that are part of Taiwan’s backlog, such as Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and High Mobile Artillery Rocket Systems.

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For example, several Middle Eastern and eastern European countries are ahead of Taiwan in Lockheed Martin’s F-16 production queue. In 2019, the State Department approved an $8 billion Taiwan sale for 66 F-16s, but Taipei does not expect to receive the aircraft until 2026.

“Saudi Arabia is still ahead of Taiwan on the priority list in some cases,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., told Defense News ahead of a July meeting with Taiwan’s Washington envoy. “We need to take a look at that.”

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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Somalia

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Somalia

That’s because we bomb Somalia in virtual secrecy from the American people. Our government barely acknowledges the strikes. The media maintains a virtual blackout on the bombings. When pressed by the peace community, the official response is we’re killing bad guys in al-Shabab, an anti-Somalia government outfit the US helped create with its meddling in Somalia politics as part of its endless GWOT (Global War On Terror).

Amnesty’s State Dept, CIA Links Make Report on Ukrainian Army Crimes All the More Damning: Observer

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Amnesty’s State Dept, CIA Links Make Report on Ukrainian Army Crimes All the More Damning: Observer

Amnesty International’s report on the Ukrainian military’s deployments inside civilian areas and the employment of tactics which endanger civilian lives is all the more damning given the organization’s anti-Russia bias and links to the US government and intelligence services, US journalist and political commentator Don DeBar believes.

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Amnesty International Ukraine office director Oksana Pokalchuk resigned over the report, accusing the watchdog of creating materials “that sound like support for Russian narratives,” demanding it be deleted and rewritten, and blasting it for failing to “take into account the position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.”

Related:

Amnesty International report exposes Ukraine’s violations of international law, deliberate use of civilians as human shields

Significantly, the Ukraine office of the organization vehemently opposed the publication of the report. Its head, Oksana Pokalchuk, declared, “We did everything we could to prevent this report from going public.”

The fact that Amnesty International ended up releasing the report despite serious internal divisions and immense political pressure indicates that the real situation on the ground in Ukraine is, if anything, far more disturbing than even what this report suggests. It should also be noted that the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which has played a prominent role in the anti-Russia war propaganda in Europe, admitted in a report on Friday, rather grudgingly, that its own reporters had made similar findings as Amnesty International and that the conduct of the Ukrainian military “raises legitimate questions.”

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In a rare moment of truth, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov recently described his country as a “testing ground” for Western arms manufacturers, which have reaped major profits from the tens of billions of dollars in money for weapons that NATO has pumped into the Ukrainian military.

West Can Not Sustain Prolonged Conflict In Ukraine, Says Pentagon Supplier

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

US defence industry boss calls for clarity on what arms Ukraine needs

Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman, one of the top five “prime” contractors in the US, warned that weapons stockpiles had not been built to service a lengthy war.

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“I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’ve heard we’re running out, but if you do project forward that we’re going to want to sustain these levels of commitments for another couple of years — that’s certainly not what anyone had built stockpiles to accommodate,” she said.

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“We think in the long term, there’s going to be a requirement to replace Russian air combat capability — fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft” for the Ukrainians, the industry executive said.*

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Northrop was prepared to make investments, including expanding factories “ahead of a contract”, said Warden, but cautioned that industry needed to “get an indication that if we build it, the demand will come”.

It can take years for a defence company to source parts, assemble, test, and deliver a system.

Northrop Grumman generates more than 80 per cent of its annual revenues from contracts with the US government, including key roles on programmes such as the F-35 fighter jet where it provides parts for the weapons system and avionics. It also led the industry team for NASA’s James Webb space telescope.

Like many manufacturers, Northrop Grumman is wrestling with supply chain challenges, in particular shortages of electronic parts such as cables, connectors and power supplies. Lead times for such parts have “doubled or tripled,” said Warden.

*What a co-inky-dink?!

Title borrowed from:

Ukraine Update: West Can Not Sustain Prolonged Conflict In Ukraine, Says Pentagon Supplier