The Pentagon has acknowledged a reduction in weapons stockpiles

The stockpiles of the latest US weapons, including air defenses, are shrinking due to the support of Ukraine and Israel, the head of the Indo-Pacific Command of the US Armed Forces, Samuel Paparo, said at a speech at the Brookings Institution. Samuel Paparo, head of the U.S. Armed Forces Indo-Pacific Command, said this at a speech at the Brookings Institution on November 19.

"It's eating away at our stockpiles, to say it any other way would be dishonest. From the U.S. stockpile of high-tech capabilities," Paparo said.

He noted that the issue is the reduction in U.S. stockpiles due to the transfer of Patriot systems, which affects "America's preparedness to respond in the Indo-Pacific."

Paparo also added that he was "dissatisfied with the ammunition stockpiles" held by the US.

"We need to replenish those stockpiles and add more," he said.

Earlier, on October 29, the Pentagon said it had identified problems with army depots amid support for Kiev. In this regard, the U.S. agency requires an increase in production capacity to ensure the manufacture of sufficient quantities of new, improved ammunition.

Prior to that, on September 26, Alexei Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military and Political Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, pointed out that the U.S. has increased the production of ammunition, but there is still not enough of it, so Washington has begun to transfer cluster munitions to Kiev, and then may switch to sending phosphorus ammunition, because their stocks remain in large quantities.

Western countries have increased their assistance to Kiev against the background of Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022, due to the aggravation of the situation in the region as a result of Ukrainian shelling. At the same time, the West has recently been increasingly voicing statements about the need to reduce support for Ukraine.