Top defense firms to meet at Pentagon over Ukraine weapons support

[Rogue Valley]

Top defense firms to meet at Pentagon over Ukraine weapons support

The Pentagon plans to hold a classified meeting of top weapons makers Wednesday to discuss how the U.S. can speed up production to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, a defense official confirmed …

thehill.com

4.12.22
The Pentagon plans to hold a classified meeting of top weapons makers Wednesday to discuss how the U.S. can speed up production to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, a defense official confirmed to The Hill. The Defense Department “will convene a meeting of our largest prime contractors, to enable a classified discussion of DoD requirements across broad portfolio areas,” the official said in a statement. On the table will be industry proposals to accelerate production of existing systems and create new ones critical to the Pentagon’s ongoing security assistance to Ukraine and allies, they said. The official did not say which companies would attend, but Reuters, which first reported on the gathering, noted that representatives from eight prime defense contractors would be there. The United States and other countries have surged weapons to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, drawing questions on resupply efforts and plans should the war stretch into years. defense officials have been in near daily communication with weapons makers — Raytheon and Lockheed Martin make Javelins while Raytheon makes Stingers — to buy equipment to send to Ukraine and replenish those taken from the Pentagon’s own stocks for the effort, according to the official.

To meet the needs of the US, NATO nations, and Ukraine, weapons production must increase at a more rapid pace.

For example, total production of the Javelin anti-tank missile since 1994 has been ~37,750. Javelin's are used for US military training purposes, and also exported to US/NATO allies. About 5,000 US Javelin's have already been sent to Ukraine. That means there are ~20,000 Javelin's remaining in US stockpiles. Not enough. In a large European conflict, 20,000 could be expended in a month. Also to be discussed are other active/beta weapon systems that may be of help to the Ukrainians. They certainly need anti-air systems, and longer range artillery and MLRS. One of the things the UA should be doing right now is destroying as many railroad/highway bridges in Donbas as is possible via artillery, demo sapper units, and partisans. This would greatly hinder Russian logistics.