US Looking at New Weapons to Help Ukraine Expand Distance and Range – By Patrick Tucker (Defense One) / April 12, 2022
New package of Ukraine aid coming soon.
The Pentagon is considering Ukraine’s requests for more advanced weapons to “give them a little more range and distance,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters Tuesday.
While the United States has provided billions of dollars in military aid and equipment to Ukraine —$1.7 billion since the start of the invasion alone and $300 million announced in April—the Ukrainians have repeatedly asked for advanced weapons and air defense systems to repel Russian forces. So far, the U.S. has sent Ukraine some 50 million rounds of ammunition, according to CSIS. They’ve also provided more than 1,400 Stingers, 5,000 Javelins, Puma and Switchblade drones, and more, according to a White House fact sheet.
That’s led some to wonder if the United States has a large enough stockpile of those weapons to continue to arm the Ukrainian military.
“Total production [of Javelin systems] has been 37,739 since production began in 1994. Every year, U.S. forces use some missiles for training and testing. Thus, there may be 20,000 to 25,000 remaining in the stockpiles,” CSIS’s Mark F. Cancian said in a post Tuesday, estimating that the Javelins sent to Ukraine represent about a third of the total U.S. inventory.
