After it has sent almost a third of its Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stingers to Ukraine, concerns have been raised that the US might face a shortage in supplies that will take 32 months to replenish and a year to produce 1,000 of them, under current conditions.
This was determined in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in late April, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said, noting that he and other Congressmen have called for the Biden administration to ensure the US military retains ample supplies by invoking the Defense Production Act.
Similar concerns have been raised by the Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who pointed out that the US has to maintain its stocks while helping Ukraine, where the US has also moved a significant number of Stingers.
Responding to the question stemming from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing and concerns about the US’s Javelin and other anti-tank weapons supplies, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed on Monday that Washington has transferred equipment from the US stocks to Ukraine without affecting the US military readiness.
She also noted that the Biden administration is looking to replenish both US inventories and backfill depleted stocks for them and for the US allies and partners.
In light of his urging the Congress to approve $33 billion in further military aid to Ukraine,
Biden visited on Tuesday a Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama that’s producing Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Asked about the anti-tank weapons shortage, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby, on the other hand, underlined that they’ve seen so far no negative impact on their ability to defend the nation across a range of military capabilities, stressing that Javelin isn’t the only capability the US has against armor.
Defense News quoted in April Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes called that increasing anti-tank missile production is going to take a little bit of time, which suggests that the Biden administration has been downplaying concerns about the shortage.
Hayes stressed that they have a very limited stock of material for Stinger production since the DoD hasn’t bought a Stinger in 18 years, so they’re actively trying to source some of the material while currently producing Stingers for an international customer.
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