US to meet Ukraine arms requirement in 2025: Report

The United States will be able to meet Ukraine's current weapons requirements only in 2025, US military officials say.

Citing US military officials, The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the administration of President Joe Biden is seeking to increase stretched supplies of crucial munitions for Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russia.

The weapons effort is focused on delivering more 155mm caliber shells used in the howitzers Ukraine is deploying along the front line, according to the report.

The 155mn shells are large steel bullets filled with explosives that weigh approximately 100 pounds and are fired from howitzer artillery systems, including American-made M777 and M109 weapons provided to Kiev.

According to US estimates, Kiev was expending over 90,000 shells a month in its fight against Russia.

As of March, the US could churn out 20,000 shells per month and aimed to ramp up monthly production to 50,000 by 2024 and 90,000 by 2025, said the report.

Ukraine is currently firing up to 8,000 rounds of artillery a day, a much larger quantity than the US would fire, according to US officials. 

They said the White House had been aware for months that Ukraine’s high burn rate of munitions would begin to stretch supplies and had stepped up efforts to get the shells to the front line as Kiev launched its counteroffensive last month.

"As the front lines stabilize, the importance of artillery increases,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies Cancian

“The surprise has been how important just regular artillery shells are.”

Mark Cancian, senior adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies said the US "did not anticipate or prepare for a long war and the industrial base was constrained for efficiency."

The US military, the officials said, is now building more production lines, including retooling a facility in Ontario, Canada, and erecting a new assembly line in Texas.

Military officials said they may also establish new facilities to load, assemble and pack 155mm shells in Arkansas, Iowa and Kansas.

Biden also made a controversial decision last month to authorize shipments of banned cluster munitions to Ukraine.

The decision, an official told FT, “helped ensure that Ukraine has the ammunition it needs and that they would not run out."

Cluster shells, bombs, and munitions contain dozens of small bomblets that rain shrapnel over a wide area and are banned in most countries due to the potential danger they pose to civilians.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president has continually called on Western allies to increase weapons supply, from air defense systems to fighter jets.

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He said last week that the counteroffensive against Russia got off to a slower start than hoped because “we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough brigades properly trained in these weapons."

The US has committed more than $43 billion in lethal assistance, including 198 155mm Howitzers as well as more than 2mn rounds for them.

Russia began its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It has repeatedly warned the West about supplying Kiev with weapons, saying the move would only prolong the war.

And the US National Security Council said Biden "has said he is committed to supporting Ukraine as long as it takes."

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