What does this suggest to you?
I suppose this could be accounted for in different ways. However, the wording “using up” suggests to me that the munitions are being deployed to the UK forces and are being used. It must be that they’re not as effective as we were led to believe. I saw one video—and obviously I can’t vouch for it—that purported to show a Russian tank that had taken three hits by NATO anti-tank munitions, but made it back to base under it’s own power. The turret was a complete loss, but the rest of the tank was still functioning. In any event, this news comports with what we’re hearing from other NATO countries—they no longer have any weapons to spare. The Russians are grinding them down.
Picky, picky—he doesn’t want any of that obsolete stuff:
Ukraine started this war with an extremely well equipped military, chock a block with first rate NATO or refurbished to NATO specs weaponry. Something has happened in the last weeks, and it’s not positive for UK.
Did any of those billions in aid money somehow get diverted?
Former anti-armor platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne (~2008-09 timeframe) offering his $0.02 here. The Javelin is an important weapon system, but remember that the doctrinal definition of “destroying” a tank isn’t rendering every part of it useless for all time.
A shaped charge warhead (or two firing back to back) spewing molten metal into a sealed turret and killing the crew inside, rendering the vehicle unserviceable but salvageable still counts as a kill. We need not expect the turret be blown clean off. Students of the US Army’s armored drives in 1944-1945 will recall thousands of Sherman’s being knocked out of the fight by anti-tank guns and panzerfausts only to be dragged back to field repair plants where the crew would be washed out of the turret and the vehicles would be patched up enough to be put back into action with new tank crews. If the Russians can establish such repair centers close behind the lines and find replacement crews then the Ukrainians are screwed.
8 billion was last count. Think about how many miles of border wall that’d get ya.