https://sputniknews.com/20221127/nato-running-low-on-weapons-for-ukraine-as-20-of-its-members-pretty-tapped-out-1104741349.html
NATO ‘Running Low’ on Weapons for Ukraine as 20 of its Members ‘Pretty Tapped Out’
NATO ‘Running Low’ on Weapons for Ukraine as 20 of its Members ‘Pretty Tapped Out’
The US and its NATO allies are struggling to assemble enough weapons to arm the Kiev regime as their own stockpiles are being depleted.
2022-11-27T06:27+0000
2022-11-27T06:27+0000
2022-11-27T06:27+0000
world
nato
ukraine
russia
howitzers
javelin
jens stoltenberg
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The US and its NATO allies are increasingly struggling to assemble enough weapons to arm the Kiev regime while also topping up their own depleting stockpiles, according to sources cited by a US media report.The alliance of western countries intent on continuing to funnel military and financial assistance to Ukraine is beginning to run low on weapons for this purpose. As Washington and its NATO cohorts persist in fanning the flames of the Ukraine conflagration, this dogged policy is increasingly grinding through the modest stockpiles of artillery, ammunition and air defenses of some of Europe’s more modest armies. Thus, smaller member-states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have already exhausted their potential, while 20 of the alliance’s 30 members are currently “pretty tapped out,” a NATO official was cited as saying. The remaining 10, including Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands were allegedly still in a position to provide more military assistance for Ukraine.Resupply & Maintenance ChallengesThere are myriad problems facing the western coalition providing weapons support for Ukraine. Washington, albeit the self-appointed ringleader of this “assistance”, possesses but limited stocks of the kind of weapons the Ukrainians require, stated the media report. Loath to divert critical weapons from regions like Taiwan and Korea, and as stockpiles of costly air-defense missiles and anti-tank Javelins sent to Ukraine fade, the US has reportedly been scrambling to find Soviet-era equipment and ammunition for Ukraine.Reference here is made to S-300 air defense missiles, T-72 tanks and Soviet-caliber artillery shells. The problem with shells is becoming an increasingly manifest one, as the amount of artillery being used by the Ukrainian side is overwhelming, according to cited NATO officials. Recalling how many artillery rounds were fired daily by NATO forces in Afghanistan, for example, Camille Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, was cited as saying that, “a day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan.”The United States produces only 15,000 artillery rounds each month, stated the sources, pointing out that Western defense industries were being warned to gear up for much longer-term contracts. Furthermore, there is ostensibly chatter about employing more shifts of workers and sprucing up older factory lines. Ammunition purchases from countries like South Korea are also allegedly being looked at to “backfill” stocks hollowed out due to the Ukraine conflict.NATO is even believed to be mulling investing in some old factories located in Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic in order to launch the production of Soviet-caliber 152-mm and 122-mm shells for Ukraine, as the latter still relies to a great degree on artillery armory dating back to the Soviet-era. Furthermore, NATO countries have delivered advanced Western artillery to Ukraine that utilizes the alliance’s standard 155-mm shells. But as other NATO countries often make the shells differently, these systems are often incompatible. The US stockpiles of 155-mm artillery rounds had purportedly been dwindling as of September, with the numbers of guided rockets, rocket launchers, howitzers, Javelins and Stingers also limited. An earlier report had stated that maintenance of the armaments was becoming a problem as no less than a third of the estimated 350 Western-made howitzers supplied to Kiev were out of action at a given moment due to wear and tear.Export controls were also another hurdle, the report underscored, as some of the countries have legal restrictions on selling guns and ammunition to a country intending to deliver them to another one, engaged in a conflict.Describing the plethora of diverse systems that the western countries have been channeling into Ukraine, one alliance official wryly called it “NATO’s petting zoo,” in a reference to the animal names used for weapons, such as the German Gepard 35mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun system, or the French Crotale (‘Rattlesnake’) air defense systems. The “mixed bag”, as the source put it, makes both resupply and maintenance challenging. The alliance has failed to work on creating weapons that could be used interchangeably by NATO countries, added the insiders.Overall, NATO countries have currently provided an estimated $40 billion-worth of weaponry to Ukraine, added the report, which almost equals the amount of, say, France’s annual defense budget. Incidentally, Paris is cited as being reluctant to provide more to Ukraine after giving it about 20 percent of all of its existing artillery in the form of 18 modern Caesar howitzers.And yet, NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has been verbally flogging faltering alliance members, reminding them that despite the bloc’s guidelines requiring members to maintain stockpiles, their depletion is no excuse to limit arms exports to Ukraine. Russia began its special military operation on February 24, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk amid intensified aggression of the Kiev regime. However, Western countries responded by imposing sweeping sanctions against Moscow while also ramping up their military support for Kiev. In the face of continued weapons deliveries to Ukraine by the western countries Moscow has consistently underscored that the assistance to Kiev is only drawing out the conflict, and is fraught with further conflagration as NATO risks being fully drawn into the conflict. Furthermore, there have been reports of US weaponry bound for Ukraine often ending up “vanishing,” only to surface on the black market.
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https://sputniknews.com/20221122/us-military-strives-to-replenish-stocks-after-sending-tons-of-weapons-to-ukraine-1104558679.html
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ukraine
russia
2022
News
en_EN
us and its nato allies are struggling to find enough weapons to arm ukraine, 20 nato members are pretty tapped out, running low on weapons to arm kiev, depleting weapons stockpiles,
us and its nato allies are struggling to find enough weapons to arm ukraine, 20 nato members are pretty tapped out, running low on weapons to arm kiev, depleting weapons stockpiles,
Maintenance of the western-supplied armaments to prop up the regime in Kiev was becoming a headache for the Pentagon, an earlier report stated, with overused weapons being destroyed or damaged as Russia continues its special military operation in the neighboring country.
Thus, smaller member-states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have already exhausted their potential, while 20 of the alliance’s 30 members are currently “pretty tapped out,” a NATO official was cited as saying.
The remaining 10, including Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands were allegedly still in a position to provide more military assistance for Ukraine.
Resupply & Maintenance Challenges
Reference here is made to S-300 air defense missiles, T-72 tanks and Soviet-caliber artillery shells. The problem with shells is becoming an increasingly manifest one, as the amount of artillery being used by the Ukrainian side is overwhelming, according to cited NATO officials.
Recalling how many artillery rounds were fired daily by NATO forces in Afghanistan, for example, Camille Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, was cited as saying that, “a day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan.”
The United States produces only 15,000 artillery rounds each month, stated the sources, pointing out that Western defense industries were being warned to gear up for much longer-term contracts. Furthermore, there is ostensibly chatter about employing more shifts of workers and sprucing up older factory lines. Ammunition purchases from countries like South Korea are also allegedly being looked at to “backfill” stocks hollowed out due to the Ukraine conflict.
NATO is even believed to be mulling investing in some old factories located in Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic in order to launch the production of Soviet-caliber 152-mm and 122-mm shells for Ukraine, as the latter still relies to a great degree on artillery armory dating back to the Soviet-era. Furthermore, NATO countries have delivered advanced Western artillery to Ukraine that utilizes the alliance’s standard 155-mm shells. But as other NATO countries often make the shells differently, these systems are often incompatible.
The US stockpiles of 155-mm artillery rounds had purportedly been dwindling as of September, with the numbers of guided rockets, rocket launchers, howitzers, Javelins and Stingers also limited.
Export controls were also another hurdle, the report underscored, as some of the countries have legal restrictions on selling guns and ammunition to a country intending to deliver them to another one, engaged in a conflict.
Describing the plethora of diverse systems that the western countries have been channeling into Ukraine, one alliance official wryly called it “NATO’s petting zoo,” in a reference to the animal names used for weapons, such as the German Gepard 35mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun system, or the French Crotale (‘Rattlesnake’) air defense systems. The “mixed bag”, as the source put it, makes both resupply and maintenance challenging. The alliance has failed to work on creating weapons that could be used interchangeably by NATO countries, added the insiders.
Overall, NATO countries have currently provided an estimated $40 billion-worth of weaponry to Ukraine, added the report, which almost equals the amount of, say, France’s annual defense budget. Incidentally, Paris is cited as being reluctant to provide more to Ukraine after giving it about 20 percent of all of its existing artillery in the form of 18 modern Caesar howitzers.
And yet, NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has been verbally flogging faltering alliance members, reminding them that despite the bloc’s guidelines requiring members to maintain stockpiles, their depletion is no excuse to limit arms exports to Ukraine.
