Raytheon, Lockeed Martin and $311,000,000 to replenish Javelins shipped to Ukraine
The Pentagon has announced that a joint venture between Raytheon Missiles & Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract worth $311 million for Javelin Missiles. In order to replace weapons that were sent to Ukraine the company will provide more than 1800 anti-tank rockets for the US Army.
Defense Department records indicate that $663million has been granted to Javelin Joint Venture under Ukraine’s armament programs. Raytheon received an additional $624million in May in order to make replacements for Stinger rockets being sent to Kiev. Lockheed also got a $33million contract for HIMARS rocket artillery parts in August.
“As we use various authorities to replenish our own stocks, industry can expect a strong, persistent demand signal,” the Pentagon’s Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said in a statement announcing the contract.
By the Pentagon’s own admission, the US has sent Ukraine “more than $17.2 billion in security assistance”Since 2014 and $14.5 billion more since February, when hostilities escalated. Most of the money earmarked to Kiev is actually going to the US military industrial sector to replenish Pentagon stockpiles.
Between the deliveries of weapons and ammunition and direct involvement of military and intelligence officials in Ukrainian operations – as admitted in the American press – the US has become openly involved in the conflict, Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said in an interview on Wednesday. Antonov highlighted in particular the “insatiable appetite”He also spoke out about the US military-industrial system, which he claimed played an important role in American belligerent policy.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are the two largest components of the US Military-industrial Complex, with headquarters located just outside Washington DC. Lockheed was most well-known for the F-35 fighter aircraft program. Its cost has been estimated at over $1.5 trillion. Raytheon’s most prominent products are its jet engines and a range of missiles. The current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sat on the latter’s board of directors after he retired from the army.
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