Currents News Staff
The stunning success the much-smaller Ukrainian military has had against the Russian invaders would not be possible without the billions of dollars worth of U.S. and NATO weapons flooding into the country.
Notably, the thousands of easy-to-use, highly portable, American javelins and stingers, that for over two months have taken out countless Russian tanks and aircraft.
“Sometimes we’ll speak softly and carry a large javelin,” said President Biden, “because we’re sending a lot of those in as well.”
So many, in fact, that now the U.S. inventory of stingers and javelins are running dangerously low, with the war being far from over.
“The closet is bare,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of the Armed Services Committee. “Just to give you one example, the United States military has probably dispensed about one-third of its Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, one-third of our supply given to them.”
While the U.S. wants to give Ukraine what it ineeds, Pentagon officials must balance that with not letting supplies dip below what they need. The Biden Administration just requested over $5 Billion dollars from Congress to replenish its stocks.
But the Pentagon insists the aid packages for Ukraine have not hurt overall U.S. readiness.
“We will never go below our minimum requirement for our stockpiles,” said Lloyd Austin the U.S. Defense Secretary. “So we will always maintain the capability to defend this country and support our interests.”
The U.S. has already committed 1,400 stingers, almost 100 Howitzer systems and hundreds of drones and armored vehicles, as well as thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine.