Bloomberg: US will soon run out of Javelin, Stinger for Ukraine Pentagon has supply-chain problem

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, no weapon has been more effective against Russian forces than the Javelin anti-tank missile.

Drawing on a supply of roughly 7,000 US-made Javelins, Ukraine’s fighters have destroyed at least 400 Russian tanks and hundreds more armoured vehicles, Bloomberg reports.

The weapon’s potency has helped foil President Vladimir Putin’s plans to overrun the country. There’s just one problem: The US stockpile is now running out.

The war has already consumed as much as one-third of the US military’s inventory of Javelins. Within months, the Pentagon will be unable to deliver new ones without emptying out its own supply.

The war has also consumed one-quarter of the US inventory of Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles; Raytheon, which makes the Stinger, says it could take up to a year to restart production. (The Army has issued a $625 million contract to Raytheon to do so.) At the current usage rate, supplies could be nearly exhausted by next year.