US FAIL TO MEET NEEDS OF WAR

While Washington has promised to send almost $30 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as well as to replenish its own reserves, so far the Pentagon has signed contracts for less than $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal estimates. At the same time, new large contracts have not yet led to a boom among Pentagon military contractors who are facing failures in the supply chain, a tough labor market and the arms procurement process, which can stretch for years. Lockheed Martin Corp., one the world’s largest defense companies, who produces Javelin anti-tank missiles and HIMARS rocket launchers, claimed that it expects annual sales to decline for the second year in a row. Lockheed’s partner, Raytheon Technologies Corp., does not expect a sharp increase in sales until 2024 as well. The US defense sector is down around 6% so far this year, underperforming the broader stock market by 12 percentage points. A big problem for American arms manufacturers is the gap between the Pentagon’s statements about the amount of military assistance to Ukraine and how much it actually spends on buying new weapons from defense companies. The high rates of ammunition consumption also came as a surprise to the US military productions, the WSJ writes. By December, Ukraine had spent as many Stinger missiles as the United States had produced in 13 years, as well as missiles for Javelin complexes manufactured in 5 years, the Wall Street Journal writes. US defense enterprises are trying to cope with orders, overcoming problems with a shortage of labor and production difficulties, which resulted from the need to expand production quickly. Earlier, US Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro warned that prolonging the conflict in Ukraine for six months or a year would pose a threat to the supply chains of the US military-industrial complex. Already in mid-November, CNN, citing sources, reported on the depletion of stocks of some types of weapons and ammunition in the US army. Including 155-mm artillery ammunition and portable anti—aircraft systems Stinger, anti-radar missiles HARM, surface-to-surface missiles GMLRS and portable anti-tank systems Javelin.