Bill LaPlante, the department’s undersecretary for acquisitions, told reporters that the Pentagon is working with the defense industry to ramp up production lines to meet both U.S. and international demands for certain weapons. And he said some countries have already started inquiring about buying the High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems, or HIMARS. As a result, he said, the U.S. must both replace the HIMARS systems it sent to Ukraine — at a projected cost so far of about $33 million — but also anticipate future foreign sales requirements. According to the Pentagon, the department is already working to replace about $7 billion in weapons and equipment taken off the shelves so it can be quickly delivered to Ukraine. Of that, about $1.2 billion has already been contracted, and about half of that involved Stinger missiles. Congress has provided a total of $12.5 billion for such replacements so far this year, as well as another $6 billion to buy weapons and equipment directly from industry for shipment to Ukraine. Conventional items can take several years to enter. Some of the money will be spent on investments in the defense industrial base so that companies can either expand or accelerate their production. “We remain committed to contracting as quickly as possible to ultimately send a clear and persistent message of demand to our industry partners,” said LaPlante. As an example, he said, the industry currently produces about 14,400 rounds for the Howitzer gun each month, but the plan is to work up to 36,000 per month in about three years. Even this amount, he noted, may not meet the requirements. So the US military has contacted other companies around the world to purchase 250,000 rounds of this ammunition. In some cases, LaPlante said, there are easy solutions to increasing production capacity, and in others it requires more creativity. Resuming production of Stinger missiles, he said, has forced contractors to find alternative parts to replace obsolete ones. Sasha Baker, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said the new US defense attaché in Kyiv, Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon, is trying to provide more insight into what capabilities Ukrainian forces are using most. He said Harmon, who was appointed in July, gives the US better oversight and the ability to get “real-time information about what the Ukrainians are seeing and experiencing and what they might need.” La Plante said he would meet with acquisition and weapons officials from other NATO and allied nations later this month to talk about how to solve supply chain problems and boost production of needed equipment. He said the group will also discuss how nations can increase their use of equipment that is interchangeable and works more easily with other allies’ systems.
