Well, we sure as heck are not depleted on HIMARS. So far we’ve delivered under 5% of our HIMARS inventory (counted prior to any being sent to Ukraine, so far as I can tell), less than half of receipts from Lockheed-Martin in 2022, and MAYBE* a quarter of LM’s 2022 production (being ramped up to ~double US receipts in 2023.)
The ONLY explanation at this point to Ukraine not having 60+ operating HIMARS systems is squishy US leadership. “Fail!” by the reporters for not pressing on that one...
*Figures in the press tend to ignore deliveries to other customers, only quoting production for the US. An exact number for actual total production seems near impossible to come up with.
I will agree that Austin in particular just dances around and euphemizes instead of answering what were actually some other good questions by reporters. Such as what to do about a rumored (impending) large scale Russian aircraft attack (likely following attacks to severely degrade Ukraine’s AD system in a focused area.)
They have all been destroyed if we had given them to Ukraine.
Ukraine's military, which was the largest in Europe other than Russia's, has been fed into a meat grinder with more than 150,000 dead and 400,000 dead or wounded. Russia has up to a 10-1 end in ammo fired per day and has a huge edge in manufacturing ammo and weapons. Russia controls the airspace and has crippled Ukraine's electric grid.