Ukraine Fires Mortar - A Ukrainian soldier fires a mortar at Russian positions in Pakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 10, 2022. | Image by LIBKOS/AP
Simi Valley, California - A section of the Berlin Wall stands prominently on the grounds of a library and museum dedicated to the legacy of Ronald Reagan and the role he played in the fall of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine Fires Mortar
But this weekend, as the nation's defense leaders gather for the annual Reagan National Defense Forum, there is a palpable sense that the bad old days are back--and that America and its European allies still haven't fully met the challenge.
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China continues to be seen as the biggest long-term threat, said military leaders, members of Congress and CEOs of defense companies at a bilateral meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Still, it is necessary to go aggressively to solve a problem that many here did not foresee a year ago: a heated proxy war with Russia in Ukraine that has left the Pentagon and the defense industry scrambling.
"A high-end conflict takes a lot of weapons, a lot of weapons," Mike McCord, the Pentagon's chief budget officer, said in an interview. “We're also looking at supply chain constraints. We haven't figured it out yet.”
Pentagon and industry officials note that efforts are finally gaining momentum to replace weapons that the United States and its allies have shipped to Ukraine — reducing stockpiles seen as key to deterring China or other potential adversaries in the years ahead.
"It's very urgent," Army Minister Christine Wermut told reporters. "Congress sends billions of dollars to the Department of Defense, and we roll it around and get a contract -- I'd say two to three times faster than we normally do."
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It cited recent deals for nearly ten thousand 155mm artillery shells shortly after the arrival of the Ukrainians. By the spring, she said, "we'll be doing 20,000 rides a month."
But the United States said in the spring of 2025 that making enough of them would take time. She said that averages out to 40,000 rounds per month.
Indeed, incentivizing factories to manufacture artillery, missiles, and air defenses designed for efficiency in peacetime—rather than for wartime production—was proving a daunting task.
"We're spending a lot of money on some very large, sensitive systems and not a lot on the weapons to support them," said Gregory Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies, during a panel discussion. "We have no priority to meet the war reserves that we have to fight a protracted war."
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"People haven't seen it in a while, so we forget that with real industrial packaging it always takes time and it never happens instantaneously," said Doug Bush in an interview.
He added, "I think we're getting close to wartime, which is what I'm building on."
For example, he's talking to congressional defense committees about buying weapons for the first time using multiyear contracts — a vehicle the Defense Department uses for aircraft and ship programs to save money and ensure a steady flow of production.
Officials are also considering creating a Pentagon fund to buy versions of the weapons that could be quickly transferred or sold to partners — Taiwan, for example — in the event of a conflict.
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McCord explained that the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine "may not be the solution to having a 'what-you-when-when' mentality".
McCord added that lawmakers have so far been skeptical about giving the Pentagon a blank check. But he hopes they can come to an agreement. At the forum, lawmakers from both parties were adamant that the funding should continue into the next Congress, even as some conservative members abstained from paying the price.
McCord added that any new vessel dedicated to weapons production would have to be at least $100 million to be effective, but even that amount would have to match the capacity of the actual industrial base.
"What can be done with the workforce in the industrial base and supply chain in the next 12 months?" Asked.
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He also said the Biden administration's pending request for $38 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine should help. "We now have some clear funding to expand the capacity of the industrial base in the anticipated annexation."
However, others said the contracting process was too slow and not robust enough to get the industry going as needed.
“In order to develop all of these weapons that we need, we have to get production contracts there,” said Eileen Lord, former Pentagon weapons chief and CEO of Textron Systems.
It derided what it called "clump contracts" in favor of long-term contracts to force companies to make the investments needed to increase production.
File:a Soldier With The Ukrainian Land Forces Fires An 82mm Mortar.jpg
Lord said the United States should make it easier for allies to build American weapons by sharing engineering specifications.
"We have to think about our closest allies and partners... and break down the barriers in terms of these technical data packages that Australia, Canada and the UK, if they want, can start producing," she told reporters. "We don't have things because we don't make them."
"What gives me so much pause when I look at what's happening now with arms declining is that the American industrial base can't just produce World War II-type production or even a regional conflict that could lead people into such a massive scale. Imagine," he said of Commercial satellite imagery that played a major role in providing the world with the Ukrainian conflict. said Dan Jablonski, CEO of Maxar.
"We can do these things, but we can't do them on a large scale like we used to," he added in an interview. "It wasn't designed that way."
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Lawmakers also worry about how hungry the American public is, paying for its ever-inflated price tag.
"I think we all really admire the Ukrainians, and you should support them as much as you can," said the deputy. said Elisa Slutkin (D-Mitch.). "But I knocked on 80,000 doors and Ukraine came out electing me in Central Michigan. People said, 'I really support them and I want them to succeed, but when do we stop giving billions of dollars and is there an endgame?'" "
"So I think elected officials can be very clear about the plan here," she added in an interview. "And there is certainly a faction in Congress from the right and the left willing to work with Ukraine."
For the Reagan administration veterans who attended the forum, all the talk about outrunning the Russians was surreal. As a senior defense policy official for Reagan and President George W. "No one thought this would happen again," said Dov Zakim, who served as chief budget officer under Bush. "We came close to bringing Russia into NATO." One of the ten Ukrainian soldiers fired mortars at Russian positions in Pakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 (AP Photo/LIBKOS) 1 in 10 Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar at Russian positions in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)
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Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces bombarded and illegally annexed Russian positions in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson, targeting resupply routes across a key river as they approached a full-scale offensive Friday on one of the first urban areas captured since Russia. invaded the country.
The Russian-backed authorities are reportedly seeking to turn the city of Kherson, a major target for both sides because of its vital industries, main river and seaport, into a fortress while trying to evacuate tens of thousands of residents.
According to the Ukrainian Army's General Staff, the Kremlin sent 2,000 conscripts to the Kherson region to replace losses and reinforce front-line units - four of which had been illegally integrated into Moscow and placed under Russian martial law.
The Dnieper was notable in regional wars because it performed vital functions—the transit of supplies, troops, and civilians; drinking water for southern Ukraine and associated Crimea; Generating electricity from a hydroelectric station. Most of the region is under Russian control, including a power plant and a canal supplying water to Crimea.
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Appointed by the Kremlin, Kherson officials said the Ukrainian bombing of the Dnieper River ferry killed two journalists working for a local TV station they had set up during the occupation. Russia's Tass news agency reported that at least two people were killed and 10 broadcast crew and their relatives were injured.
Natalia Homenyuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine's Southern Operational Command, confirmed that the Ukrainian military attacked the nearby Antonievsky Bridge.
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