US military industry struggling to meet Ukraine demand: Report

New Delhi: American arms manufacturers are having trouble getting enough rocket motors to make missiles for Ukrainian forces, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The largest ground war in Europe since World War II isn’t translating into boom times for US defence contractors as supply chain disruptions, a tight labor market and a Pentagon procurement process that can take years are pushing the production targets back.

According to the report, in a quarterly earnings report released on Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said that although its overall sales rose from a year earlier, sales of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) fell due to a “lower volume” leaving its factories.

GMLRS projectiles are artillery rockets, and are fired from Lockheed Martin’s M142 HIMARS platform.

US military aid to Ukraine

According to the most recent Pentagon data, the US has provided 38 HIMARS platforms to Ukraine. The Defence Department does not publicly state how many GMLRS projectiles have been delivered to Kiev, but a Reuters investigation put the number at over 5,000 last November, exceeding the 4,600 that Lockheed Martin can produce annually.

A shortage of rocket motors has hindered the company’s efforts to boost production, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Other missile makers like Raytheon Technologies have also been affected, the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Lockheed Martin also uses solid-fuel rocket motors in its Javelin anti-tank missiles, of which more than 8,500 have been sent to Ukraine over the last year.

During a visit by President Joe Biden to the company’s Javelin manufacturing facility in Alabama last May, CEO Jim Taiclet vowed to double production of the shoulder-fired missiles by 2024. However, the company and the Pentagon said that the date has since been pushed back to 2026.

“We thought we could get there earlier,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Jay Malave, Lockheed Martin’s Chief Financial Officer, as saying.

Sole supplier

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings is the sole supplier of rocket motors to US missile manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

However, despite receiving a $216 million contract from the Pentagon last week to increase production, Aerojet claimed that it was still recovering from a fire that occurred in one of its factories the previous year, and antitrust authorities are still looking into the company’s sale to aerospace giant L3Harris Technologies.

While rocket artillery and guided missile production are apparently hindered, Ukraine is also grappling with a shortage of conventional artillery rounds. Leaked Pentagon documents recently suggested that the shortfall is delaying a planned spring offensive by Kiev’s forces, while the US is reportedly looking to its allies to replenish its depleted stockpiles.

Russia has cautioned that the proliferation of Western weapons will only make the conflict in Ukraine worse. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, said earlier this month that the West’s role “is gradually increasing” and that it “cannot influence the final outcome of the special operation.”

With inputs from agencies

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