Study Shows Shortfall in U.S. Weapons Supply

"WASHINGTON -- The military operation in Ukraine has exposed widespread problems in the American armaments industry that may hobble the U.S. military's ability to fight a protracted war against China, according to a new study.

The U.S. has committed to sending Ukraine more than $27 billion in military equipment and supplies since Russia's military operation  in the country.

But the protracted conflict has exposed the strategic peril facing the U.S. as weapons inventories fall to a low level and defense companies aren't equipped to replenish them rapidly, according to the study, written by Seth Jones, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Mr. Jones said the study, which reflected input from senior military, defense, congressional, industry and other government officials, showed how quickly the U.S. military would run out of munitions in a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

"How do you effectively deter if you don't have sufficient stockpiles of the kinds of munitions you're going to need for a China-Taiwan Strait kind of scenario?" Mr. Jones said.

For more than the last 20 years, the U.S. fought insurgency warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, a troop-intensive strategy, but the Ukraine conflict is a largely conventional military operation that relies more on heavy weaponry. A potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific would be different from the largely land military operation taking place in Ukraine, but would nonetheless need to draw deeply from U.S. arms stockpiles.

The problems with the industrial base, in part the result of outdated military contracting procedures and a sluggish bureaucracy, are now affecting the ability to create a credible deterrent in the Indo-Pacific region or face-off against China in a military conflict, according to the study. "These shortfalls would make it extremely difficult for the United States to sustain a protracted conflict," the report said. 

"They also highlight that the U.S. defense industrial base lacks adequate surge capacity for a major war."" [1]

1.   U.S. News: Study Shows Shortfall in U.S. Weapons Supply
Lubold, Gordon.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 24 Jan 2023: A.4.