Posted on 09/09/2022 8:44:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON—The war in Ukraine has depleted American stocks of some types of ammunition and the Pentagon has been slow to replenish its arsenal, sparking concerns among U.S. officials that American military readiness could be jeopardized by the shortage.
The U.S. has during the past six months supplied Ukraine with 16 U.S. rocket launchers, known as Himars, thousands of guns, drones, missiles and other equipment. Much of that, including ammunition, has come directly from U.S. inventory, depleting stockpiles intended for unexpected threats, defense officials say.
One of the most lethal weapons the Pentagon has sent are howitzers that fire high-explosive 155mm ammunition weighing about 100 pounds each and able to accurately hit targets dozens of miles away. As of Aug. 24, the U.S. military said it had provided Ukraine with up to 806,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition. The U.S. military has declined to say how many rounds it had at the start of the year.
In recent weeks, the level of 155mm 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.
The U.S. military used a howitzer as recently as last week to strike at Iranian-backed groups in Syria, and the depletion of 155mm ammunition is increasingly concerning for a military that seeks to plan for any scenario.
The Army said the military is now conducting “an ammunitions industrial base deep dive” to determine how to support Ukraine while protecting “our own supply needs.” The Army said it also asked Capitol Hill for $500 million a year in upgrade efforts for the Army’s ammunition plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Very little of the materiel cited in your list is “advanced” in any way. The M113 isnt an IFV. There were some BMPs provided from Eastern Europe, but those are prehistoric. The fighter jets are MIG29s. The Gepard is a 1970s vehicle.
Cowards-Peevin
What I heard was that the military supplies we left in Afghanistan were old, damaged, not functioning very well, etc. President Trump said we were living in early April, Biden moved it to late August. What were the military advisers telling both presidents about leaving this equipment? If it was good, why wasn’t more moved out before April. I also wonder why more of our Afghan helpers were not moved out by early 2021?
This is true. Russia has to my knowledge signed five multilateral agreements with Ukraine that:
- fixed its borders to the 1992 borders
- included promises never to invade (under any circumstances, ever!)
Note also that the majority of Ukraine that has been pounded into rubble, and the majority of civilians killed, are the Russian speakers from South and East Ukraine... the very same people the Special Military Operation was supposed to be protecting.
If you aggregate the total of confirmed deaths in the conflict from 2014 to 2019 (14,400 including 4,400 Ukrainian combatants, 6,517 DPR/LPR combatants, 400 Russian regulars, and 3,404 civilians on both sides, PLUS foreigners and the passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17), you get a kill rate of around 2050 a year across all demographics. (Note, there are no demographics from any source that even suggest that all 3,404 civilians were on the pro-Russian side only AND were all killed by Ukrainian Nazis, but let’s assume for arguments’ sake they were, i.e. the “genocide” was killing Russian speaking civilians at a rate of 426 per year).
The Special Military Operation has resulted in the deaths of a minimum of 80,000 people just in and around Mariupol, with a total in the 115,000 ballpark if bodies that are yet to be identified are included. This works out at 120,000 a year pro-rata.
Even if we massage the statistics massively to make pro-separatist Russians look like the only victims here, the rate ACTUALLY went from 426 a year (on average) to 40,000 a year (a third of the first half year total if we pretend that the other 2/3 were either combatants or Azov Nazi sympathisers)- meaning the average Russian Ukrainian is 94 TIMES more likely to die in the Special Military Operation than they were likely to die during the “genocide”.
What the Putinards don’t seem to get is, it’s the Russian Ukrainians who are making this observation - they might be keeping silent, but it must be obvious to them now that swapping the soft boot of Kyiv for the jackboot of the Kremlin has been a complete, unmitigated disaster. They would’ve been far better off if Russia had washed its hands of the Donbas and left the DPR and Azov duking it out.
Last that I saw, the South Koreans weren’t spending jack on defense, instead relying on the US tripwire (which is now gone, except maybe regarding nukes), but I admit that was a few years ago. Maybe Trump had some luck. Anything ordered this year is obviously useless in the short term.
Perhaps you don’t know the Democrats as well as I do, but they fought like hell against conservatives on virtually every major weapons program.
Look up “Star Wars” for example.
Then, after getting most of they wanted - they decide to go around the world the igniting wars, just to find out once they use up the weapons that us conservatives fought for and did manage to get funded, replacing them will take years.
“We’ve taken the best shot our most advanced military tech and Ukrainian cannon fodder boys could provide us and that paper bear Russia is still standing. What does that say about NATO and Russia? What does that tell Xi about American military capabilities?”
Get real. Our “best shot” would be if we — the United States — fully committed to wage war with Russia. Which, of course, we haven’t done, and are not likely to do.
“Who, exactly, is likely to engage the United States in a land war in a timeframe where we can’t replenish our inventory?”
My first thought was: No one. However, China might IF that land war were in China or its immediate vicinity. Other than that, no one would voluntarily fight such a war against the US.
I know the left very well, and I know pro-Russians/anti-NATO forces well, that is why I advise you guys to start coffee houses around our military bases in Europe and pass out free newspapers to the American troops as they drive off the bases, it will take that kind of activism to turn them against NATO and to start supporting Russia.
“The Strategic Petrolium Reserve is depleted and not being refilled.”
Stop the hyperbole. According to the DOE, the reserve is not depleted, and has 453.1 million barrels. However, that is the lowest level in 35 years.
“I’m betting there will be no 2022 mid-term elections. They know they would lose and are not about to give up their power so there will be a big red flag and the elections will not take place.”
I’ll take that bet.
I know who SUPPORTED a strong military and who OPPOSED a strong military for the past 50 years, and those who opposed a strong military are the ones that engineered and started the war in Ukraine, the same party now in the White House running their war.
The Russians who started the war did not support a strong American military and a strong NATO.
Currently, our anti-NATO activists are supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supporting the threat against our American GIs and allies in NATO.
Your Post 132 - I honestly don’t understand why more people can’t see that.
Too many people see everything in black and white and that’s just not reality.
“I honestly don’t understand why more people can’t see that.”
They almost always have some type of personal connection to the situation there (money, family, live near there, etc.), so they’ll lie just as the Western Media does about the causes of the war and the history there.
To them, even HARD EVIDENCE of crap from Victoria Neuland goes in one ear and out the other...and they just keep repeating their talking point: “Putin woke up on Feb 24, was bored, so he invaded Ukraine”, as if the West, particularly the Neocons, had nothing to with triggering the war.
...and the thing is, they know full well that the West (the Neocons in particular) EXACTLY what we know, which is that we engineered the conditions that led to this war.
Depleting ammunition stockpiles by sending them to Ukraine where they take out Russian equipment and soldiers.
Beneficiary? China, again!
Just two of many examples and there always seems to be a pattern to our government’s official actions, who then benefits from them and who pays.
And more often than not, other than with President Trump’s official actions, it’s we, the people, who are paying, not benefitting. Why?
Leverage. How many politicians, corporate leaders, judges, etc. would you need to own/control to make a government do what you wanted it to do?
Who owns who in our world?
Who owns us/US?
Thanks for your reply. I agreed with much of your post by the way, just not the specifics about Canada and Chine although we see the dangerous potentials and Trudeau has said in the past he admires the Chinese style of government. He is not a one-man show, I am pretty sure if he openly did some of the things suggested, his party would remove him from power. Most of them are not nearly as far to the left as he seems to be. Globalist yes, but I think the globalists foresee a time when they will have to deal with China as an adversary not a friend. They are not doing all this to install a Chinese government in America. They want more direct results. And one day they hope to install a globalist government in China. It would be a bit different although still totalitarian.
First, I said 'Congress letting the MIC go hungry', don't ever mistake the troops for the MIC.
But more importantly, you missed my earlier question, I'm curious how you view these developments.
How does watching these Ukrainians welcoming the troops of the counteroffensive near Kharkiv make you feel?
Do you think these people want to be in Russia?
The video is taken from Borivske Kharkiv region days ago, start video 49.637717, 37.331663 end video 49.643657, 37.333516
Since you asked, the local militias don’t have a prayer against the NATO attack...and we’re seeing just that.
Next step will be the NATO Army going against the Russian Army, once the Russian Army is deployed there.
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