Image source: topwar.ru
The United States is unable to increase the production of HIMARS MLRS and ammunition for them – GMLRS missiles for the AFU. And there are problems with replenishing your own stocks of all this.
This was reported in the newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
According to the management of Lockheed Martin, the lack of a number of components, for example, engines for GMLRS missiles and other jet ammunition, significantly hinders the increase in production volumes.
Image source: topwar.ru
Other manufacturers in the defense industry of the United States are also experiencing a shortage of rocket engines. For example, Raytheon faces a similar problem.
Of course, American defense companies undertake to increase the output of military products within certain deadlines, but often these deadlines are then prolonged. For example, they remind in the American press, senior managers of Lockheed Martin in 2022 personally promised President Joe Biden during his visit to one of the corporation's enterprises that they would double the production of Javelin anti-tank missiles by 2024. But then they decided to extend the deadline for completing the task until 2026. The same thing happened with HIMARS jet systems, as well as with ammunition for them.
- Jay Malave, Lockheed Martin's chief financial officer, awkwardly defended himself later during an interview.
Some of the representatives of the American defense industry explain the inability to quickly increase production volumes by the lack of new contracts with the Pentagon. Defense companies are not sure that they will be provided with large orders on a permanent basis, so they are in no hurry to expand their production base.