WASHINGTON (AP) — As other countries see the impact of U.S. weapons within the Ukraine war, the Pentagon is getting extra requests for them, together with the high-tech, varied-launch rocket device that Ukrainian forces have successfully used towards Russian ammunition depots and other supplies, protection officials spoke of Friday.
bill LaPlante, the branch's beneath secretary for acquisition, told reporters that the Pentagon has been working with the defense trade to increase production strains to satisfy both U.S. and international calls for for certain weapons. And he said some countries have already begun asking about purchasing the excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket systems, or HIMARS.
in consequence, he pointed out, the U.S. has to both exchange the HIMARS methods it despatched to Ukraine — at a projected cost up to now of about $33 million — however additionally predict the future calls for in foreign sales.
in response to the Pentagon, the department is already working to change about $7 billion in weapons and machine that become taken off the cabinets so it can be delivered right away to Ukraine. Of that, about $1.2 billion has already been contracted, and roughly half of that became for Stinger missiles.
Congress provided a total of $12.5 billion for such replacements to this point this 12 months, as well as one other $6 billion to purchase weapons and machine directly from trade to send to Ukraine. The reduced in size items may take a couple of years to come in.
one of the crucial money may be spent to make investments in the defense industrial base so that agencies can both extend or pace up their production.
"We remain committed to getting things on contract as promptly as possible, in the end to ship a transparent and protracted demand sign to our companions in industry," stated LaPlante. for example, he spoke of, at the moment industry is producing about 14,400 rounds of ammunition for the Howitzer artillery gun each month, but the plan is to work up to 36,000 a month in about three years.
Even that volume, he mentioned, may also now not meet calls for. So the U.S. military has contacted other corporations around the globe to buy 250,000 rounds of that ammunition.
In some cases, LaPlante noted, there are handy solutions to increasing the production potential and in others it requires extra creativity. Restarting the production of Stinger missiles, he said, forced contractors to come up with alternative constituents to change out of date ones.
Sasha Baker, the protection under secretary for coverage, talked about the brand new U.S. defense attache in Kyiv, Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon, is trying to supply greater perception into what capabilities the Ukrainian forces are the usage of most.
She talked about Harmon, who become appointed in July, gives the U.S. stronger oversight and the skill to get "true-time suggestions about what the Ukrainians are seeing and experiencing and what they could need."
LaPlante pointed out he will meet with acquisition and weapons officers from different NATO and allied international locations later this month to talk about a way to unravel supply chain considerations and ramp up production of crucial equipment. He observed the neighborhood will additionally focus on how the a number of nations can enhance using equipment it really is interchangeable and operates more conveniently with different allies' systems.
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