Navy’s Indo-Pacific Commander Warns Ukraine Aid Is Draining US Missile Stocks

A top US Navy admiral has warned this week that the recent move of Washington to give advanced long-range weapons to Ukraine is depleting US missile stocks.

Adm. Sam Paparo, Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told a Brookings Institution audience earlier this week that earlier in the war the US was shipping less valuable weaponry to Ukraine, which didn’t deeply impact readiness for big global threats like China. More advanced defense tech is currently being shipped, and this presents a serious problem for the United States’ long-term defense needs.

“But now with some of the Patriots that have been employed, some of the air-to-air missiles that have been employed, it’s now eating into stocks,” Paparo said.

“And to say otherwise would be dishonest,” the naval commander continued. Given he’s in charge of the Pacific region, he underscored that this could weaken America’s defense posture in the region for the long term, at a moment Beijing is vying for military primacy.

Paparo emphasized that “none” of these weapons “are preserved for any particular theater, but none can move with alacrity to any theater.”

“Inherently, it imposes costs on the readiness of America to respond in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the most stressing theater for the quantity and quality of munitions because the [China] is the most capable potential adversary in the world,” he continued, as cited in Washington Times report Friday.

He called for the depleted weaponry to be restored “and then some” – and that this must be an urgent priority.

Among the missile systems being given by the Biden administration to Kiev are Patriot air defense batteries, and the Army’s ATACMS.

European countries have also suffered the same problem of depleted domestic stockpiles. Ukraine’s Western backers are at the same time trying to assist Kiev in jump-starting and expanding its own defense manufacturing sector.