US Ramp Up Of Artillery Production For Ukraine Will Help Supply Israel

Thanks to its industrial ramp up of production capabilities to help Ukraine defeat Russia, the US has already begun supplying Israel with its requests for equipment and ammunition. 

Additional capacity is expected to become available and no problem is foreseen in meeting Israel's needs. JL 

Task and Purpose reports:

The industrial ramp up of artillery production in response to US support for Ukraine will help the US support Israel in a war with Hamas. “Planes have already taken off, and we anticipate continual delivery on the requests Israel has made. We’re also contacting US industry to gain expedited shipment of pending Israeli orders for military equipment. If $20 billion in replenishment contracts and $13 billion in USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative] isn’t a demand signal, I don’t know what is.” The US has already sent its USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the region which includes the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided missile destroyers. They’re also augmenting regional Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons.

The industrial ramp up of artillery production in response to US support for Ukraine in the last 12 months will help the US support Israel in a potential long-term war with Hamas, the Army’s chief acquisition official said.

The Pentagon and civilian arms markers  in increased munition production to refill depleted US stockpiles from support to Ukraine and increased ally and partner demand, Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology said in September. The goal is to produce 100,000 shells per month by fiscal 2025.

 

On Saturday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad-backed militants led an unprecedented attack on Israel by air, land and sea–which led to a declaration of war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that day. More than 1,100 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed, including 11 Americans.

“The fact that we are already ramping up several production lines would position us hypothetically to help them more than if we were kind of in the pre-war mode,” Bush told Task & Purpose. 

However, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Monday that the Department of Defense would need additional funds from Congress in order to simultaneously support Israel and Ukraine.

The US is “working as fast as possible” to provide needed munitions and other equipment, a senior official told reporters on a phone call Monday.

 

“Planes have already taken off, and we anticipate seeing continual delivery on some of the requests Israel has made,” the official said.”We’re also contacting US industry to gain expedited shipment of pending Israeli orders for military equipment that otherwise may have been considered routine for movement.”

 

The defense industrial base has asked the DOD for stronger demand signals and funding in order to restart old lines of artillery production that lulled during a lack of US conflict participation.

Bush said US support could “hypothetically cut across a wide range of things from small arms all the way up to more sophisticated munitions,” Bush said but added that it was too early to give specifics. 

“We’re not diminished. We might get a little lower in some cases, but we keep reserves,” he said at a press conference at the Association of the United States Army’s 2023 conference.

The US has spent billions of dollars on munition production and replenishment and is using multi-year contracts to give defense contractors better visibility into longer-term DOD demands.

“If $20 billion in replenishment contracts and $13 billion in USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative] isn’t a demand signal, I don’t know what is,” Bush said.

US weapons support will depend on the types of missions that Israel wants to carry out, Bush said.

 

Israel has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists and pledged a “complete siege” on Gaza – a region housing more than two million people inside an area of 360 sq. km (nearly 139 sq. miles) or twice the size of Washington D.C. 

Hamas took control of the Gaza strip in 2007 and it has been the site of numerous skirmishes over the years with Palestinian militants targeting southern Israeli towns with rocket and mortar strikes. Palestinians say the strikes are a product of years of oppression and discrimination by the Israeli government.

The US has already sent its USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the region which includes the Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy and guided missile destroyers. They’re also augmenting regional Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons.