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A White House official says Ukraine needs a consistent flow of capabilities, not one decisive weapon, to defeat Russia.
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Russia is believed to produce artillery shells three times faster than Ukraine’s NATO partners.
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The US is producing together with Kiev to boost the defense industry and compete with Russia.
Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer said there is no specific weapon Ukraine needs to defeat Russia. Instead, Ukraine needs a consistent flow of certain capabilities.
There’s a sense that “they’re one system away from a huge breakthrough where they’re going to get the system and run roughshod over the Russian military,” Finer said Thursday at a Center for New American Security conference. “This is not that kind of war,” he added.
Finer said he wishes the US could provide Ukraine with an endless supply of artillery and air defense weapons, which Ukraine needs most. “If there are two things we could give an infinite amount of to the Ukrainians to turn the tide of this war, they would be artillery ammunition and air defense interceptors,” he explained.
“We’re just not making enough of it,” he said, adding that “we’re making more, and early next year we think we’ll be in a much stronger position.”
The consultancy firm arrived in May Bain & Company found that Russia is producing artillery shells three times faster than Ukraine’s NATO partners, for less money, and that the country is expected to refurbish or produce as many as 4.5 million artillery shells this year.
That said, the US, like some of its allies and partners in Europe, has been working to dramatically increase production of artillery shells, especially the highly sought-after 155mm shells. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US was making about 14,000 a month, but the goal is to bring that number to 100,000 by 2025.
In addition to making more grenades, Finer added that the US is launching a co-production with Kiev to boost the defense industry and compete with Russian production capabilities.
Ukrainian soldiers expressed the dire need for artillery and air defense on the battlefield in an interview with CNN last week, with some saying the US-supplied M1 Abrams tanks were not enough. American veterans who fought in Ukraine have also said the same thing in the past, especially when Ukraine struggled with debilitating ammunition shortages.
“This conflict between two very similar militaries is in some ways much more about the fundamental block and approach that I think many of us honestly didn’t fully realize would remain an important facet of modern warfare: the production of not super high-tech but critically important ammunition, which we have allowed to expire,” Finer said.
“We are now taking important action to get our act together,” he said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
