The Pentagon warns Congress it is running low on money to replace weapons sent to Ukraine
By: LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP (AP News)
Biden's war in Ukraine is now weakening the national security of the United States. And Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is a contributing factor. Maybe gifting the Taliban $7 billion of US military equipment and supplies to score political points wasn't such a good idea, after all.
This is Biden's pooch. And Biden has screwed it. Now American taxpayers are expected to bail out Biden and give him a participation award.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is warning Congress that it is running low on money to replace weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine and has already been forced to slow down resupplying some troops, according to a letter sent to congressional leaders.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, urges Congress to replenish funding for Ukraine. Congress averted a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding bill over the weekend, but the measure dropped all assistance for Ukraine in the battle against Russia.
Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord told House and Senate leaders there is $1.6 billion left of the $25.9 billion Congress provided to replenish U.S. military stocks that have been flowing to Ukraine. The weapons include millions of rounds of artillery, rockets and missiles critical to Ukraine's counteroffensive aimed at taking back territory gained by Russia in the war.
In addition, the U.S. has about $5.4 billion left to provide weapons and equipment from its stockpiles. The U.S. would have already run out of that funding if the Pentagon hadn't realized earlier this year that it had overvalued the equipment it had already sent, freeing up about $6.2 billion. Some of that has been sent in recent months.
McCord said the U.S. has completely run out of long-term funding for Kyiv through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides money to contract for future weapons.
"We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future," McCord said in the letter. "Failure to replenish our military services on a timely basis could harm our military's readiness."
He added that without additional funding now, the U.S. will have to delay or curtail air defense weapons, ammunition, drones and demolition and breaching equipment that are "critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive."
President Joe Biden said Sunday that while the aid will keep flowing for now, time is running out.
"We cannot under any circumstances allow America's support for Ukraine to be interrupted," Biden said. "We have time, not much time, and there's an overwhelming sense of urgency."
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if the aid doesn't keep flowing, Ukrainian resistance will begin to weaken.
"If there's no new money, they're going to start feeling it by Thanksgiving," he said.
The short-term funding bill passed by Congress lasts only until mid-November. And McCord said it would be too risky for the Defense Department to divert money from that temporary funding bill to pay for more aid to Ukraine.
Many lawmakers acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war grinds on and resistance to the aid from the Republican hard-right flank gains momentum.
Tags
Who is online
143 visitors
No amount of national debt will replenish stockpiles faster than the equipment and munitions can be manufactured. Let's hear Biden tell us this is just another supply chain problem. Biden's war in Ukraine, that we're not fighting, is bankrupting the military and leaving the United States unprotected. But, hey, the front line troops certainly get all the potato beer and prostitutes they want.
Why has the world gone to shit after Biden took office?
Biden did give a statement on that. He said ";lkajdfoiaud;foiuj alknfpuoihepoiqweoinvaioehjoi ak;lfj kll;j ajkldjfoiupoiuj."
Joe will end up blaming it all on MAGA.
Here is a couple of dandy moments at a staff meeting and subsequent reporters being hustled out of the room
Maybe its because of lying dog-faced pony soldiers?
Or it is ALL Putin's fault, along with Covid and supply-chain issues.
Maybe its because of climate change?
We should not hear a single person complain about the military budget.
Sounds like the rest of NATO needs to step up instead of relying on the US to do something (again).
The hell of it is that Ukraine has consumed Europe's stockpile of Soviet equipment, weapons, and munitions. Europe's defense has been provided by the United States and the Soviet Union. Our taxpayer money has been used to maintain Europe's Soviet arsenal.
You can take Ukraine out of the Soviet Union but you can't take the Soviet Union out of Ukraine.
The US is bailing out Europe once again while they bad mouth us on everything else. It’s unconscionable.
Time for the EU to start taking care of its own bidness. Well past time actually ….
Remember, we did have a POTUS that pushed European countries to do their part. And they and the left cried about it.
I remember it well.
As well as the many traitorous, unpatriotic Americans who complained about it.
Here are the actual figures of aid to Ukraine.
If you use % of the country's GDP then the Baltic Countries would be the biggest givers,
Total bilateral aid commitments to Ukraine as a percentage of donor gross domestic product (GDP) between January 24, 2022 and May 31, 2023, by country:
Thank you for pointing out we are giving more for funding Ukraine than any other country.
Maybe we should pull some funding for the United Nations and send it to Ukraine. The UN isn't doing anything.
Which isn't a surprise since we are many times larger than all other countries involved and the comment was made about the EU/Europe so that is the comparison. Also the % of GDP given by countries shows that there are other countries ahead of us in that area.
The dollars given by the US represent less than 10% of our yearly defense budget and for that the Russian military has been degraded to a large extent, their weapons systems have been shown to be much less effective than ours and other members of NATO and there are no American boots on the ground in Ukraine. We have learned a lot about how warfare has changed to give us a leg up on new systems and also how well some of the older systems are working.
There has been a large increase in our weapon systems being purchased by our allies, especially F 35, HIrms and madpads.
The UN is providing support to Ukraine and has been for some time.
I never said anything about a surprise.
I stated we supply more aid than anyone, and if you choose to dispute that I am all ears.
The UN is a failure.
If you really look at the chart, the United States is providing the military aid. Financial aid can be based on all sorts of accounting tricks. But you can't fake artillery shells. Even with the US providing the overwhelming larger amount of military support, news reporting gushes over the effectiveness of British missiles and German tanks. The US isn't even getting credit for what we're providing. Ukraine really is worried about loss of US military support. Throwing Euros at the Russians won't accomplish very much.
The EU military contribution has been in the form of providing Soviet equipment and munitions. NATO defense of Europe really has relied on Soviet equipment and US dollars. Now that Ukraine has burned through Europe's stockpiles of Soviet equipment and munitions, NATO is essentially defenseless. If NATO is relying upon nukes then why isn't that a provocation?
Where are all the people complaining about how much the US spends on our military? EU or Americans? Not hearing a peep from them right now.
Ukraine would be toast today if we weren’t.
Meanwhile China is licking it’s chops.
They've turned the page. Gen Z ain't lining up at recruiting stations. In fact, the military doesn't seem to be on their radar.
Exactly and among those who do, most don’t meet the entrance criteria.
By that chart, Americans are paying more per capita for this war than EU taxpayers. About 330 and 450 million in population respectively.
No one is saying we shouldn’t be supporting Ukraine but does that really seem okay to you? Especially with how negatively it is affecting our military readiness.
Yes, we are the EU 188.39 vs the US 207.57. EU has some countries that are from the old Soviet block and are still struggling to grow economically which does affect the totals. Would it be perfect if the numbers were the same, of course it would but also take into consideration what I posted in my first comment about how the Russian military has been degraded and how we have learned how much better our and NATO weapons are than Russian and how the course of new wars will be fought in a very different manner than the past (drones for starters). Less than 10% of one year's defense budget has been used to reach this objective and no American boots on the ground.
More and more NATO countries are committed to spending 2% on their defense and since we are the largest exporter of arms in the world many of those orders will be for American systems. Currently, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Australia and Canada have ordered F35 fighters from us. Canada's order alone is for 88 F35 for $14.2 billion, Poland has also ordered 200 Abrams tanks and many countries have ordered various other systems from the US to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Is everything perfect when it comes to equal distribution, no but it's getting closer all the time.
Noted, you are fine with the trade off. Degradation of US military readiness to protect Europe from Russia. I am not. Not at this level.
Europe needs to start taking more responsibility for itself. It’s not their first rodeo. Far from it. Spend less on social welfare and more on protecting itself from nuts like Mussolini, Hitler and Putin. We’ve already financed two world wars for them in blood and money. We don’t need to finance a third.
If you really want to know the problem with the US military getting low on our weapons stockpile you should go back to 1993 and Les Aspin's invitation to top defense contractors and it known as ''The Last Supper'' in addition to the consolidation of defense contractors it allows them to charge any price they want since there is no alternative and there are many reports on this. The DOD is being held hostage by Defense companies.
It seems that Europe has seen the light and the defense budgets have all jumped and their support of Ukraine has been good.
I'm never fine with the tradeoff but I see a vast improvement in NATO defense and their support of Ukraine, I also have 5 close relatives on active duty and two of them are in European theater right now with the 173rd Airborne. One just returned from Poland with the 1/87th 10th Mountain and another is currently at Fort Campbell with the 5th SFG. (Airborne) and my grandson is with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment.
BTW, my wife worked in the defense industry for a number of years, before Aspin and the 1993 Last Supper and for a short time after it.
So my interest in what is happening in the US military and currently in Ukraine is quite high at all times.
"No Slack''..