Raytheon boss: Ukraine war consumed 13 years of production of Stinger missiles and 5 years of Javelin

The CEO of Raytheon Technologies, one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, says that in just 10 months of war in Ukraine, years of production of Stinger and Javelin missiles have been consumed, reports the National Review.

Greg Hayes made the comments at a military forum in Washington after being asked about Taiwan’s requests to buy such missiles as part of its “porcupine” strategy to deter a possible Chinese invasion.

Hayes pointed out that although Raytheon produces 400 Javelin missiles a month in partnership with Lockheed Martin, the fighting in Ukraine has quickly depleted existing stocks in the United States.

“The problem is that we used up so many reserves in the first 10 months of the war. We essentially used the equivalent of 13 years of Stinger production and 5 years of Javelin production,” he stated.

“So the question now is how are we going to rebuild, replenish these stocks,” he added.

The United States has sent 5,500 Javelin anti-tank systems and 1,400 Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile systems through May alone, with the Pentagon awarding a $624 million contract to Raytheon in May to restock the Stinger.

Concerns that the US would run out of weapons for Ukraine

US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at the same forum where Hayes spoke that the Pentagon had awarded new contracts amounting to $6 billion to replenish US weapons stockpiles.

“For example, just in the last month we awarded Raytheon contracts for 6 NASAMS batteries,” she said, referring to the state-of-the-art air defense system that the United States has already sent to Ukraine after the kamikaze missile and drone attacks launched on the country by Russian Armed Forces.

Several US officials told CNN in mid-November that the US had begun to run out of certain weapons and ammunition for Ukraine.

According to the sources cited by the American journalists, the concerns are related to the 155 mm artillery ammunition and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

Some sources also expressed concern about the US production of additional weapons systems, including HARM anti-radiation missiles, GMLRS surface-to-surface missiles and Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles, although the US has moved to increase production of these systems and other systems.

One reason for concern about low inventories is that the U.S. industrial base is struggling to keep up with demand as Washington is no longer directly involved in a conflict for the first time in two decades, which is why companies armaments have decreased production.

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