Many American experts express concern that the U.S. will not be able to continue to actively support Ukraine without compromising its own combat efficiency, writes The Hill. According to an analysis by the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies, the U.S. defense industry would not be ready to support Ukraine in the event of a hypothetical simultaneous conflict with China. In addition, the U.S. army is already noticeably short of certain types of weapons, such as 155mm shells.
There are more and more questions about how long the U.S. will be able to support Ukraine with its reserves without affecting the defense potential of the country, The Hill writes. The publication reminds that since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, Washington has already allocated more than $27 billion of military aid to Kiev.
Meanwhile, some experts have expressed concern, the publication notes. According to the report of Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in case of possible conflict between the US and China on the ground of Taiwan, the US military industry will not be ready to support Ukraine in parallel with this conflict. Based on CSIS analysis, in the event of a conflict around Taiwan, the U.S. would exhaust its stockpile of precision-guided munitions within a week.
Seth Jones, author of the report, believes that the conflict in Ukraine has exposed serious deficiencies in the U.S. defense industry, The Hill writes. According to Jones, in the event of an armed conflict, the U.S. defense industry simply would not have time to readjust to military rails.
According to The Hill, after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, for the first time in 20 years the United States was not directly involved in any of the world’s conflicts. This factor has affected the volume of military production: the defense industry was also struck by the coronavirus pandemic. In this case, Jones notes that American military manufacturers are used to work in conditions of low-intensity conflicts, which were in recent years in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last November, CNN reported that U.S. stocks of certain types of weapons (including 155-mm shells) were “running low. In January 2023, CSIS officer Mike Kankane said that the 155 mm shells are on the list of six types of weapons, which the U.S. army will not be able to replace over the next three years. According to Kankane, this situation could lead to a shell crisis in Ukraine.