Making new Stinger missiles will take “years” due to component shortages, says Raytheon CEO
As Ukraine burns through anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles the US has been supplying Kiev, Raytheon CEO warned on Tuesday that the company won’t be able to replenish the Pentagon stockpiles for at least several years, citing a shortage of electronic components.
“We’re going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile and the seeker head,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investment analysts during the company’s quarterly earnings call, according to Defense One. “That’s going to take us a little bit of time.”
Hayes specifically mentioned the FIM-92 Stinger portable air defense missile, which the Pentagon supplies to Ukrainian soldiers. Lockheed Martin and the US jointly produced FGM-148 Javelin antitank missile. Last month, Ukrainian officials informed the US that 500 Stingers were needed daily and Javelins every day.
Raytheon hasn’t made Stingers for the US military in almost 20 years, and the ones being sent to Ukraine are coming out of the Pentagon stockpiles. Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Defense Secretary of Raytheon has stated that Raytheon was a supplier. “a very limited stock of material for Stinger production”The Pentagon is a good example of this. “actively trying to resource some of the materials,”Defense One recommends that you do so again.
Hayes said he doesn’t expect the Pentagon to place “large”Orders for replenishment of either the missile or its components until 2023, 2024.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had earlier pledged that the United States would continue to support this initiative. “keep moving heaven and earth”The US and its allies can supply Ukraine and support it, so they could also help “win”Russia in conflict. His visit to Ramstein in Germany was a presidency of a meeting with representatives from nearly 40 nations that had pledged military aid to Ukraine. Austin, who was visiting Kiev this weekend, stated that the US would like to see Russia “weakened”They are still fighting.
According to the Pentagon, Russia may have been using Kinzhal hypersonic rockets against Ukrainian supply sites because of a shortage. Austin asked on March 20, if Russia had been a threat to Ukraine’s supply depots. “running low on precision-guided munitions,”John Kirby, his spokesperson later stated that Kinzhals were used. “could very well be tied to inventory problems and performance problems that they’re having with respect to PGMs,”Another Pentagon official made the claim, but no proof was ever presented.
In 1981, the Stinger was first put into service. Washington claimed that the Stinger helped to end Soviet air supremacy by sending an unspecified number of missiles to Afghan mujahideen. During the US 20-year occupation of Afghanistan in which the US sent missiles, some of these were turned against American troops. The airlift from Kabul ended the US occupation last August.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. French and German protocols were created to grant the regions that had broken away special status in the Ukrainian government.
In recent years, the Kremlin demands that Ukraine declares itself to be neutral so that it can join NATO. Kiev maintains that Russia’s offensive was not provoked and denies claims it planned to seize the two republics.
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