This, at a time when China has built the world's largest navy, has just launched its third and most advanced aircraft carrier and is threatening Taiwan more than ever.
Also, it's not as if Russia doesn't know what's going on, as reported by the Kremlin-aligned Russia Today website:
A new weaponry wish list, claimed to be sufficient to “throw Russia out of Ukraine,” was unveiled on Monday by Mikhail Podolyak, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The new call has effectively pushed Ukraine’s demand for Western-made weapons to the limit, with even the US at risk of running out, multiple media outlets have suggested.
The demand includes 1,000 NATO-standard 155mm howitzers, 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 1,000 drones. It is unclear what types of drones and armored vehicles Kiev needs to repel the ongoing Russian offensive that began in late February.
It's clear that most European NATO members have nowhere near that kind of weaponry just sitting around collecting dust. So naturally, in order to fulfill even a scaled-back version of the wish list, the bulk of it will have to come from the military-industrial complex within the United States. And already, American taxpayers are the principal suppliers of gear and money to Ukraine.
"Fulfilling the demands would effectively require the US – the top supplier of weapons to Ukrainian troops over the course of the conflict – to disarm its own military, multiple Western media outlets pointed out," RT.com reported.
For instance, the number of MLRS systems that Ukraine is demanding would consist of half of the Pentagon's existing supply of such weapons, according to The Guardian, which cited publicly available figures assembled by the Institute for Strategic Studies. The report said that the U.S. Army has around 363 HIMARS towed rocket artillery pieces and another 225 M270 MLRS tracked launchers; the U.S. Marines have another 47 such systems.
"The demand for 155mm artillery would effectively empty the US of active stock altogether, as it would require the Pentagon to surrender nearly all of its M777 howitzers, according to the article," RT.com reported. That said, the Pentagon also has thousands of older, towed artillery pieces that are held in reserve and could potentially send many of those to Ukraine -- which still is not advisable.
The only demand that the U.S. and NATO could reasonably fulfill without putting too much strain on their respective militaries is Ukraine's request for tanks. The Marine Corps is in the process of ditching all of its heavy M1A1 Abrams tanks, but the Army has an inventory fleet of around 6,000 of them in storage and currently on active duty, though it's clear that Ukrainian crews would need to be trained on them, which would take weeks. And that's only after the tanks arrived in theater and Russia did not immediately target them (it would be better to fly Ukrainian crews to the U.S. and train them on American soil).
The Financial Times, meanwhile, looked at the Ukrainian request as its sum total of military equipment needed in the fight against Russia, some of which has already been delivered -- not a completely new list.
But even if that were the case, the "wish list could only be covered partially with some 270 tanks 'delivered or pledged' during the conflict," RT.com reported.
The fact is, NATO countries have very little spare capacity and much of what they have in storage is antiquated and no match for Russia's frontline equipment. The wish list will have to be fulfilled by the U.S. and if Biden does it, he is intentionally putting America at risk.
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