Javelin, Stinger stockpiles running low: Raytheon CEO

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Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles are depleting at an alarming rate, with the arsenals being voided of weapons that took years to produce within months, Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes said Monday, citing the United States flow of aid into Ukraine as the reason being.

The United States has been sending Javelins and Stingers into Kiev in the thousands, and they have been acclaimed as one of the reasons why Ukraine has been able to hold its ground as well as it has over the course of the war.

Raytheon, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is producing around 400 Javelins per month, the CEO revealed, noting that the stream of weapons into Ukraine has been driving eating through the two companies' stockpiles of shoulder-mounted weapons.

Meanwhile, the United States has sent 5,500 Javelins and 1,400 Stingers to Ukraine as of May, with the number definitely being a lot higher due to several aid packages approved since then.

“The problem is we have consumed so much supply in the first ten months of the war," the arms manufacturing conglomerate's CEO said, stressing that the stream of arms used up five years' worth of Javelin production and 13 years' worth of Stinger production, wondering who was going to replenish the depleted stockpiles.

Since the start of the war and through September, the US has given Ukraine $15.8 billion for "security assistance", which includes a package worth $600 million. Additionally, the White House asked Congress for $13.7 billion for "security and economic assistance" for Ukraine.

The opposition to aid to Ukraine is growing; not because the continuous flow of arms would only prolong the war, but because Republican members of Congress cannot justify spending so much money overseas when their country is grappling with various economic and financial crises, most notably soaring inflation.

The United States has not only been giving money and arms to Ukraine, as a senior official in the US Department of Defense said earlier this month that his country was closely engaged with the armed forces of Ukraine ahead of their Kharkov counteroffensive, providing Kiev's military with intelligence in the buildup to the operation.

Despite Washington providing information to Kiev about Russian command posts, ammunition depots, and other potential targets, Ukrainian officials had been hesitant to disclose operational plans to their US counterparts earlier in the conflict, fearing that doing so "could highlight weaknesses and discourage continued American support," US officials told the New York Times.

Hayes' words came during an address he made about US defense industrial production during a panel on Ukraine at the Reagan National Defense Forum, an annual panel aimed at drumming up support for America's military complex.

During the same panel, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said the Pentagon awarded $6 billion worth of new contracts to the defense industry to replenish US weapons stocks.

"Just in the last month, for example, we've given contracts to Raytheon for six batteries of NASAMS," she stressed. "We've also given contracts for Excalibur. We've also put out contracts to General Dynamics, IMT Defense, and one other company to increase production of 155-millimeter ammo, which has been critical to the Ukrainians."

On the other hand, House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith claimed that Ukraine was "spending the money really well, and that's why they're winning."

However, in addition to burdening the US with requests for aid, Ukraine is selling weapons it acquired from its allies on the black market due to the Kiev forces' limited ability to use them because of their lack of training, logistical challenges, and the diminishing size of the Ukrainian armed force, according to former senior Pentagon adviser Karen Kwiatkowski.

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Similarly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had pointed out that Stingers and Javelin missiles, supplied by the West to Kiev, were already being sold at a discount on the black market and have surfaced in Albania and Kosovo, which Russia has warned for so long.