CNN: 'The closet is bare': Aid to Ukraine depletes US weapons supply

[Towlie]

Just wondering: Is anyone concerned that if Ukraine doesn't win then all of those American weapons will belong to Russia?

'The closet is bare': Aid to Ukraine depletes US weapons supply

Thanks to the United States and its allies, javelin and stinger missiles are flooding into Ukraine. But there's a side effect to providing the eastern European nation military aid. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports why US weapons inventory is running low and how some say those numbers can be boosted.

[gratuitous]

1. Oh no! We're wide open to an attack from Canada!

Wow, is this all CNN has to worry about? Whether the United States has enough weapons? Is the Department of Defense going to have to have a bake sale to buy some more bang-bangs?

[yardwork]

4. My thought exactly!

[former9thward]

20. No, an attack/military confrontation with China.

China wants the U.S. out of Asia/w. Pacific and it is only a matter of time before it happens.

[NickB79]

27. That would be a sea and air battle, where Javelins and Stingers aren't needed

We're not putting boots on the ground in a war with China. That would be insane.

[former9thward]

29. In was insane to put boots on the ground in Vietnam but we did it.

The U.S. has never fought a war which was just air and sea.

[Dial H For Hero]

37. Stingers are used aa an air defense weapon of last resort on some of our warships.

[Amishman]

51. No, but I could see a scenario of supplying Taiwan against Chinese attack

The money we are spending to arm and help Ukraine is very well spent. Far more benefit to ourselves and the world as a whole than another aircraft carrier or nuclear sub.

[wcmagumba]

2. "Failure is not an option", Gene Kranz, Flight Director Apollo 13...nt

[Irish_Dem]

3. $Trillions spent on US military and the cupboard is bare in two months?

[Ray Bruns]

5. Modern warfare is very expensive and uses weapons at an alarming rate.

Especially smart and advanced weapons. Going back to the Yom Kippur war of 1973, tanks, planes and missiles were depleted extremely fast.

And all those fancy weapons take time to build. Plus, I think they shut down the stinger missile production line gearing up for its replacement.

Look at all the tanks the Russians have lost. Hard to replace quickly.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Yes Russia will be in the same boat.

Thanks for the info, very interesting!

[Towlie]

8. In the same boat except with a madman controlling the nukes.

 
←

Rumsfeld said "You go to war with the army you have" but Putin might be willing to go to war with the weapons he has.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Yes if he runs out of conventional weapons will he go to his nuclear stockpile?

Putin has typically in the past known exactly what he could get away with.
And he knows he cannot get away with using nukes.

NATO and the US appear to think Putin is bluffing. Intimidation and threats are his usual strategies.

But we don't know for sure.

[PortTack]

22. Just for some perspective the US military budget is 764+ billion

I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

One other thing of note, the US military is never deplete of weapons so much so that we could not immediately launch an offensive on two fronts. That has been policy since WWII

[Ray Bruns]

31. It's a matter of getting the production lines started again.

Say, once the military has 250,000 javelins in inventory, they shut the production line down.

If we ship 50,000 to Ukraine, then those have to be replaced. It takes time to restart those production lines. That is where this is coming from.

These aren't actual numbers, I am just citing this as an example.

[PortTack]

62. Just sayin' the military experts I started following since this began aren't talking about shortages

Of equipment

The Phoenix ghost drone was on the back burner for a long time until the pentagon agreed Ukraine needed them. They were finished in less than 2 weeks.

[GoCubsGo]

9. It's not "bare." The headline is grossly misleading.

We're running low on Stinger and Javelin missiles, not total ammunition. Not sure how much of that headline is clickbait, and how much of it is a set-up for a "Biden has left us vulnerable" narrative. Trump has been incessantly spewing the "Obama and the Democrats left the cupboards bare" lie about the military for years. Shit like this just feeds into it.

[PortTack]

24. Exactly!

All the military experts i have started following including one retired officer who helped train Ukrainians in Germany has never once said anything remotely similar

[Mad_Machine76]

32. Remember GWB

and the "two whole divisions not able to report for service" whopper?

[Kaleva]

14. On certain weapons

[ecstatic]

28. good point. Someone has been overcharging or

something. But CNN's headline sounds like something tfg would say.

[uponit7771]

42. No, we have tons of other weapons, just the ready-made ones that Ukraine can

... handle right now have been sent to them

CNN clickbait sucks

[mitch96]

6. I'm quite sure the military industrial complex is able and willing to re stockpile our weapons..

for a fee of course..
m

[Dial H For Hero]

12. They're built by privately held corporations. Should they do it for free?

[lame54]

18. No, but they do tend to overcharge - exponentially

[Dial H For Hero]

21. I would presume that to be the case with government contracts in general.

[mitch96]

65. Yup, those damn missed deadlines and "cost overruns"...nt

[Irish_Dem]

15. We are talking $billions. So yes they will be more than happy to replenish the cupboard.

[sarcasmo]

11. Typical CNN headline.

[uponit7771]

43. I hate their clickbait bullshit, I wish we had a news organization past this crap

[Collimator]

13. This is America.

We will never not have enough guns.

Italy will run out of pasta and olive oil before we will run out of guns.

[lame54]

16. But Russia has an endless supply?

[rockfordfile]

54. Well China is helping them out

[DFW]

17. Back in December, 1941, a guy named Roosevelt was confronted with a similar situation

The Japanese military stared both in astonishment and dismay at the speed with which the USA not only replenished its arsenal, but increased it to the point where it surpassed a Japanese military build-up that Japan had been preparing for a decade.

I'm fairly sure we could pull it off again.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

19. Not comparable anymore

WW2 tech is not comparable to modern weapons. Modern weapons are reliant in electronic components and microchips, all of which are primarily produced overseas and currently facing supply chain and production disruptions. Sure, we can probably spin up production to make tanks, planes, and ships, but they would be stuck waiting on the electronics that control them.

[Dial H For Hero]

23. Exactly so. A WW2 Essex class carrier could be built in as little as 14 months.

A modern Ford class carrier? 8 years.

[Arazi]

52. Off topic but the chip supply has been in trouble for two years

Going into its third year. Why isn’t the US producing our own by now?

Getting a manufacturing line up and running, even to start, should have begun by now. Anyone know if that’s in the works?

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

53. It takes years and billions of dollars to start producing them

Intel is planning a factory in Ohio. Construction will start later this year and won't be complete till 2025.

[Chuuku Davis]

60. This is a main reason

Taiwan is so important for our defense.

[rockfordfile]

55. Chip is being hurt by covid and pos bitcoin

[DFW]

67. I would have hoped that we had a large contingency reserve of those chips for just such cases

But I suppose, you're right. There is a reason that the expression "military intelligence" is considered an oxymoron.

[leftstreet]

25. I wish I had stock in weapons manufacturers

oh well

[NickB79]

26. Those weapons aren't primary systems though

The US has a massive air force, navy, artillery batteries and armored divisions for a reason. We have DOZENS of better ways to destroy enemy armor, aircraft and fortifications before we have to rely on Stingers and Javelins.

We'll all be radioactive dust before the survival of the US comes down to our stockpile of Javelins and Stingers.

[SYFROYH]

30. Time to invest in Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

[Chuuku Davis]

59. I do

In some of my IRA and TSP I think

[Caliman73]

33. I find that difficult to believe.

The United States military would not very likely send weapons systems vital to US defense and strategic forces, to another country, even in its own defense against a geopolitical rival.

If there are any "closets running bare" it is likely the weapons we stockpile for export. Not a great sign for Ukraine, but I strongly doubt there is a shortage of supplies for the US if needed.

[EX500rider]

38. We have sent 1/3 of our stockpile of Stingers

7,000 Javelins in a month or two is a lot too.

The Stinger production line had been shut down also.

Raytheon Technologies will not be able to accelerate the production of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles before 2023 due to a lack of available parts, the defense company’s chief warned on Tuesday.
Raytheon had stopped manufacturing the missile prior to a $340 million order placed last summer by the Pentagon on behalf of an international client.

The defense contractor is in the process of restarting the production line, “But we have a very limited stock of material for Stinger production,” CEO Greg Hayes said during a call with analysts.

The manufacturer has been working with the US Defense Department on the issue but “unfortunately, DoD hasn’t bought a Stinger in about 18 years, and some of the components are no longer commercially available,” he said.
As a result, Raytheon will have to redesign some of the electronics.

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/04/26/raytheon-production-stinger-missiles/

[Caliman73]

39. I will say once again...

Not that I am completely convinced that the military does not make mistakes, but I find it difficult to believe that the United States would dip into its own, necessary for self defense, supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems, leaving a gaping hole in our needed arsenal of weapons.

I understand a supply of the two systems are diminishing and there is a projection of delays in getting them back up to levels, what I am saying is that it is more likely that the supply that is manufactured for export, not what our military needs for our own operations.

If I am wrong, then we have incompetent people at the Department of Defense and running each branch of our military.

[EX500rider]

40. No, the US military does not stock them for export, the manufacturer does.

We have sent 1/3 of our Javelins and 1/4 of our Stingers.

read more here:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/push-to-arm-ukraine-may-put-strain-on-u-s-weapons-stockpile

[EX500rider]

41. And i don't think the manufacturer stockpiles them either

They built them as ordered and ship them out

[uponit7771]

44. That's like saying we're out of food because there's no ketchup, come on CNN clickbait sucks

[EX500rider]

46. Oh yeah, we have lots of other systems...but we have blown thru a lot of our Javelins/Stingers

[uponit7771]

47. Those numbers aren't anywhere near "blown thru" relatively speaking and we have a crap load ...

... of other weapons that take the place of those two systems including LAWs.

I can "blow thru" my supply of mustard and can easily replace it in less than 20 minutes of a trip to a store.

RvW is dead and CNN is posting bullshit clickbate ... damn

[EX500rider]

49. Yeah but making Javelins/Stingers a little harder then mustard.

Raytheon Technologies will not be able to accelerate the production of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles before 2023 due to a lack of available parts, the defense company’s chief warned on Tuesday.
Raytheon had stopped manufacturing the missile prior to a $340 million order placed last summer by the Pentagon on behalf of an international client.

The defense contractor is in the process of restarting the production line, “But we have a very limited stock of material for Stinger production,” CEO Greg Hayes said during a call with analysts.

The manufacturer has been working with the US Defense Department on the issue but “unfortunately, DoD hasn’t bought a Stinger in about 18 years, and some of the components are no longer commercially available,” he said.
As a result, Raytheon will have to redesign some of the electronics.

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/04/26/raytheon-production-stinger-missiles/

[uponit7771]

50. "blown threw" means we're down to 10% of max stock, we're no were near that this is CNN clickbate

[Willto]

61. Click bait BS

Sadly this is what news has come to in the post newspaper internet world.

[Mme. Defarge]

34. Hey, CNN! Good thing we

pulled out of Afghanistan when we did.

[WarGamer]

35. Just a reminder... as of a couple years ago there were Congress-critters

On the Armed Forced Committee who owned stock in Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Aerodyne, etc...

[harumph]

36. Depleted but not "bare." We can make more of these.

and will.

[uponit7771]

48. +1, RvW is about to die and CNN is posting clickbait half ass reporting

[Kaleva]

45. The Russians are dipping into their stock of Soviet era weapons.

[rockfordfile]

56. They've been doing that since the start

[Kaleva]

58. Yes. They never had enough modern weapons to sustain the fight.

One of the big problems they had early on was the tires on wheeled vehicles shredded because the vehicles had sat in in storage areas for so long without being moved.

[Joenobody]

57. Don't worry

If Democrats and Republicans can still agree on anything it's spending a few trillion bucks buying up as much Raytheon and Northrop Grumman tech as they can.

[JCMach1]

63. Title should read: our massive excess excess supply is now just a BIG

Excess supply of weaponry

[Demsrule86]

64. No, sounds like the work of Russian trolls.

[Xolodno]

66. I'll say it again and get flamed, derided, etc. for it again.

I believe Putin never planned for a blitzkrieg. And always planned for a war of attrition. One of part of the equation is Ukraine, but the other is NATO, his goal is to see how long it takes to exhaust it.

And we still are debating exactly what Putin wants. I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor, but I don't believe it applies here.


But I have been wrong before.