The US Army has awarded $522 million in orders to two companies to manufacture 155 mm artillery ammunition for Ukraine, where the Kiev regime's forces are depleting stockpiles of artillery shells gleaned from the West at lightning pace.
The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology’s Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition awarded the contracts to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. and Global Military Products Inc. on January 30, the Army said in a press release Tuesday. Funded by the Pentagon's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, deliveries of new ammunition in line with the contracts are scheduled to begin in March, the Army said. The money is being awarded against a “competitive multiple-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for non-standard ammunition,” the statement added.
Doug Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, added on the same day that the multiyear contracts were an inherent part of the overall strategy tailored to boost production of munitions such as Stingers, Javelins and 155 mm GPS-guided Excalibur rounds.
The acquisition chief had hinted last month that the Pentagon would be seeking to replenish US. stockpiles, which were being bled dry by billions’ of dollars worth of weapons funneled into Ukraine over the past year.
“There are going to be several big awards coming in February and March that will just move us further down that path,” Doug Bush had stated at a January Pentagon briefing.
The move comes as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged recently that, "the war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting allied stockpiles."
"The current rate of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain," the NATO chief said on February 13.
Such acknowledgements apparently fail to put a dent in Washington's determination to push ahead with arming Ukraine, whatever the costs. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday afternoon said the alliance needs to be prepared to provide Ukraine with military assistance for a long term.
"We need to be prepared for long haul to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," Stoltenberg said just recently at his meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.
Western countries have been supplying Ukraine with various types of weapon systems, including air defense missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft guns since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In April 2022, Moscow sent a note to NATO member states condemning their military assistance to Kiev after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any arms shipments on Ukrainian territory would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces.
Amid the frenzy to pump Ukraine with weapons and ammunition that was fraught with further escalating the conflict, Washington has been largely benefiting, particularly from European countries’ weapon supplies to Kiev, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik in January. He added that Washington considers Ukraine as a testing ground for its military-industrial products. This "cynical game", Ryabkov warned, "will end badly" for those involved.