The network claims that industry capacity limits are hampering Washington's efforts to arm kyiv.
Ukraine is receiving less military aid from the United States because the Pentagon is running short of equipment and ammunition it can export without compromising national security, CNN reported Tuesday, citing unnamed officials. Defense contractors have been unable to replenish domestic stockpiles in time and it could take a long time. “years” to increase production and be able to adequately replenish supplies, the broadcaster said.
According to CNN, since April, none of the military aid packages provided by the United States to kyiv have exceeded $400 million, with most of them worth between $125 million and $250 million. This is a sharp decrease from previous years, when US military aid packages ranged from $600 million to $800 million, such as in 2022 and 2023, the media outlet said, adding that the largest in that period amounted to $2.85 billion.
CNN sources pointed to the US inventory and the Pentagon's inability to replenish it. “It’s about the stocks we have on our shelves, what (Ukrainians) are asking for and whether we can meet those requests with what we currently have.” without harming U.S. national security, one of the officials said.
According to the report, the US was producing 15,000 155mm artillery shells per month before the major escalation in early 2022 of the ongoing conflict between Moscow and kyiv. Now, it is making 40,000 15mm shells per month. It would still take more than a year for US companies to reach the target level of 100,000 shells per month, it said, adding that the overall process of increasing production “it will take years.”
“There are limits to how quickly we can remove equipment without affecting military readiness, which is one reason packages are spaced out,” One of CNN's sources said.
Last week, the AP news agency reported that the United States could be left without the ability to spend $5.8 billion in military aid of the $13.4 billion approved by Congress in April. The White House has asked Congress to extend the time period in which those funds can be used. CNN has also since reported that the Pentagon has also requested more time to spend the money. The deadline is the end of September.
The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Western supporters of kyiv have allegedly told it to abandon its hopes of defeating Russia on the battlefield. To achieve that goal, the West would have to “provide hundreds of billions of dollars of support, something neither Washington nor Europe can realistically do,” The WSJ stated in its article.
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