Posted on 12/05/2022 5:35:31 PM PST by Cathi
Javelin, Stinger stockpiles running low: Raytheon CEO
By Al Mayadeen English Source: Agencies
5 Dec 19:14
Raytheon's CEO stresses that the company's arsenals of Javelins and Stingers are running low due to the massive aid being sent to Ukraine/
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.
“Have to factor in the supply of parts and materials down the supply chain. Many integrated circuit chips are also on allocation level of supply, but national defense is first on the allocation lists.”
I know, I was being sarcastic by talking like the dweebs running our government.
For complex weapons it’s a HUGE effort to spin-up supply lines that either don’t exist or barely exist. I suspect that the Russians know this weakness with the West, so they were happy to drag on the war, knowing that the West will be virtually out of weapons* and be forced to make concessions, and some of those concessions may go beyond Ukraine.
*I suspect that we’ve given Ukraine far more weapons than we claim, and are virtually out of some of them. Obviously we’d rather not disclose such stupidity, but the Russian government likely knows more about our predicament than our own people.
China has already won the economic war. And now the military war without firing a bullet. Did you notice China has not sent any military or financial aid to Ukraine?
Yeah, 10% for the Big Guy.
(the strategic petroleum reserve)
A weakened America was always the goal of Herbert Dwayne Barack Hussein Brawndo Obama.
And in other related news, the DNC funds are getting low.
Where’s the money?
The oft-cited figure of $300 billion in “frozen” assets is derived from the last time the CBR made the composition of
its FX reserves public, in January 2022. The report has since been removed from the CBR’s website, but can still be
downloaded via the Wayback Machine. 18 What the Group of Seven (G7) and a few more likeminded countries
decided to do in the weekend after February 24 was, in fact, to block the CBR and NWF’s access to their holdings.
The use of the word “freezing” is not accurate. It also suggests the sanctions-wielding capitals know
Western countries cannot fulfill their own sanctions and block two-thirds of the reserves of the Russian Central Bank. Because no one knows where they are.
After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the G7 countries decided to block Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves located abroad, which were estimated at $300 billion. But in the end, less than a third of this amount was arrested, and the rest was simply not found. This is reported by the Atlantic Council analytical center, working under NATO.
Now officials are trying to find the remaining reserves or the Russian institution that owns them. At the same time, analysts say, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation does not make the task easier - the last time the regulator published a report on the structure of its reserves in January and has not updated it since.
Thus, the Atlantic Council notes, the statement about the freezing of Russian reserves is not accurate. Moreover, it has now become clear that the countries imposing sanctions do not always know exactly what assets they are trying to block.
227.7Kviews
10:29
“What about material shortages? Biden has killed supply side, and that is big contributory factor for inflation.”
Absolutely, I was making a sarcastic imitation of the military-hating clowns we have running our government. They think it’s real easy - just tell Raytheon that they want another 10,000 Stinger, and Raytheon goes to Home Depot, buys the parts, and puts them together.
They’re finally getting a bit of a lesson that the adults have always known.
“Amazing that they can burn through 13 years of Stinger production in just months.”
Not when you consider the CLOWNS that we now have making production/readiness decisions. We never had a chance.
They have been supplying the Russians, at least to some extent.
How much is unknown. They are getting Russian oil fairly cheap, it appears.
Much easier to win by capturing the other country's leadership through bribes than by fighting a war...
Why is Raytheon stock dead. You would think it would be up for the year. It’s ending 2022 below its 12 month average.
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.”
—
Yes. They’ve got that spending down tight.
Yes, the Chinese are smart, deceptive and cunning.
It’s getting so that even if it were real news, I don’t believe anything. At all.
I wonder how many of those have been paid forward islamic terrorist NGOs.
It was probably made up in the offices of the source, an Arab media outlet that is anti-Israel, pro-Russia, and pro-Iran.
Are you sure your not a CEO somewhere? That’s the easiest answer that couldn’t be more wrong so you must be the CFO.
Not really. Stinger production has been on a very limited basis due to the large stockpiles and the age of the weapons system. Raytheon is not the only company that builds Stinger missile systems, other vendors may be more actively building them.
How will the Russians build more of their weapons if they can't smuggle in the US based chips their systems depend on?
If those parts are not available to US defense contractors they won't be available to smugglers who want to divert them to Russia either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.