Last week, NATO's secretary general admitted that Ukraine is using military hardware are a rate 3-4 times higher than the EU & US can produce AND the stockpile of allied weaponry is exhausted.
What's not crystal clear about this? Except that Biden's rhetoric means little.
Want more specifics? Watch the first 15 mins of this.
Abrams Tanks May Never Reach Ukraine
The war may be over by the time the U.S. fulfills its promise to Kyiv.
By The Editorial BoardFollow
Feb. 23, 2023 6:34 pm ET
Friday marks the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion, and one lesson of the past year is that Western weapons can be crucial on the battlefield at manageable risk and cost to the U.S. But the Biden Administration still lacks the speed befitting the stakes, and missing-in-action Abrams tanks are the latest example.
The Administration said on Jan. 25 that the U.S. would furnish 31 Abrams tanks, the size of a Ukrainian tank battalion. Advanced Western equipment would help the Ukrainians narrow Russia’s tank advantage. Part of the U.S. calculus was to push Germany into providing its own Leopard tanks, which Berlin finally did after weeks of dithering. The hope is that some Leopards will be up and running on the country’s front lines this spring, which will be crucial to stopping new Russian advances.
Yet the U.S. Abrams tanks were announced under a procurement authority, and Administration officials said at the time they’d take “months as opposed to weeks.” Progress update a month later? Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters Thursday that “none of the options that we’re exploring are weeks or two months.” The options for providing tanks feature “longer timelines,” but “I think there are options that are less than two years, less than a year-and-a-half,” she said.
Two years? That is an eternity in warfare, and the Abrams offer increasingly looks like it was an insincere promise intended to give Germany’s government political cover to provide the Leopards. That may have been necessary as diplomacy but it isn’t enough to help the Ukrainians evict Russia. A Pentagon spokesman insisted on Jan. 26 that U.S. stocks “just don’t have these tanks available in excess” for immediate transfer, even though the U.S. Marines are retiring their Abrams fleet.
The Biden Team has consistently refused to provide Ukraine some weapon or another, only to relent later. Another bad habit is announcing some purported bold step only to follow through at a glacial pace. Don’t be surprised if the same story plays out on fighter jets.
The Administration can get tanks, drones and long-range missiles into Kyiv’s hands if it summons the political will. President Biden promised this week in Poland that “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia,” but ensuring that result will require tanks, not words.
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