US arms stockpiles strained by Ukraine, Israel support: INDOPACOM boss

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are eating away at critical U.S. weapons stockpiles and could hamper the military’s ability to respond to China should a conflict arise in the Indo-Pacific, the top U.S. commander for that region said Tuesday.

Head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo cautioned Tuesday that the U.S. providing or selling billions of dollars worth of air defenses to both Ukraine and Israel is now impeding his ability to respond in the Indo-Pacific, such as if China invades Taiwan.

“Up to this year, where most of the employment of weapons were really artillery pieces and short-range weapons, I had said, ‘not at all,'" when asked if the conflicts were hampering U.S. ability to respond to threats in the Indo-Pacific, Paparo said.

“It’s now eating into stocks, and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” he told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

China has ramped up its military pressure against Taiwan, including a massive military exercise that involved 125 warplanes in October , and has said annexing Taiwan is a historical inevitability.

China’s military has increased its encircling of Taiwan’s skies and waters in the past few years, holding joint drills with its warships and fighter jets on a near-daily basis near the democratically run island. The U.S., like most countries, does not recognize Taiwan as a country but is the island’s main partner and is bound by U.S. laws to provide it with the means to defend itself.

Ukraine just passed its 1,000th day since Russia invaded, and in that timeframe, the U.S. has provided more than $60.4 billion in military assistance, including three Patriot air defense systems and missiles, more than 40 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and ammunition, and the coveted longer-range Army Tactical Missile System , or ATACMs, which Ukraine deployed in Russia for the first time on Tuesday.

In October, after Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel, the U.S. deployed one of its few Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries to Israel and about 100 troops to help operate it.

The U.S. also has regularly shipped air defense munitions as Israel presses its offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The conflicts have killed tens of thousands of civilians.

The outgoing Biden administration has committed to spending the remaining $7.1 billion in presidential drawdown authority — meaning weapons pulled from U.S. stockpiles — to send weapons to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. It will announce another package this week, according to U.S. officials.

However, the ability to send the weapons will be limited by what is on the shelves, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Tuesday.

Paparo told the think tank audience that the push to get weapons to Ukraine and Israel has left the U.S. with too few munitions in reserves.

“We should replenish those stocks and then some,” Paparo said. “I was already dissatisfied with the magazine depth. I’m a little more dissatisfied with the magazine depth,” he said, referring to the number of munitions in reserve.

Tara Copp is a Pentagon correspondent for the Associated Press. She was previously Pentagon bureau chief for Sightline Media Group.

美国驻印太地区最高指挥官周二表示，乌克兰和中东的战争正在消耗美国的关键武器储备，如果印太地区发生冲突，可能会削弱美军应对中国的能力。

美国印太司令部司令塞缪尔·帕帕罗海军上将周二警告说，美国向乌克兰和以色列提供或出售价值数十亿美元的防空系统，现在正在阻碍其在印太地区做出反应的能力，例如如果中国入侵台湾。

帕帕罗说：“直到今年，武器的使用主要还是以火炮和短程武器为主，我当时一直说‘完全没有’。”当被问及这些冲突是否阻碍了美国应对印太地区威胁的能力时，他这样回答。

“它现在正在侵蚀股市，否认这一点是不诚实的，”他在华盛顿布鲁金斯学会对听众说道。

中国加大了对台湾的军事压力，包括10月份出动125架战机的大规模军事演习，并表示吞并台湾是历史的必然结果。

过去几年，中国军方加大了对台湾空域和水域的包围力度，几乎每天都在台湾附近海域与中方军舰和战机举行联合演习。美国与大多数国家一样，不承认台湾是一个国家，但却是台湾的主要伙伴，并受美国法律约束，有义务向台湾提供自卫所需的武器装备。

乌克兰自俄罗斯入侵以来已过去 1000 天，在此期间，美国提供了超过 604 亿美元的军事援助，其中包括三套“爱国者”防空系统和导弹、40 多套高机动性火箭炮系统和弹药，以及乌克兰梦寐以求的远程陆军战术导弹系统（ATACM）。乌克兰于周二首次在俄罗斯部署了 ATACM。

10 月，伊朗向以色列发射了数百枚弹道导弹后，美国向以色列部署了为数不多的末段高空区域防御系统之一，并派遣了约 100 名士兵协助操作该系统。

美国也定期向以色列运送防空弹药，以支持以色列对加沙地带的哈马斯和黎巴嫩真主党发动攻势。这些冲突已造成数万平民丧生。

即将卸任的拜登政府承诺，将在候任总统唐纳德·特朗普就职前，动用剩余的71亿美元总统裁军授权——即从美国军火库中撤出武器——向乌克兰提供武器。据美国官员透露，本周还将宣布另一项武器援助计划。

五角大楼发言人萨布丽娜·辛格周二表示，但武器的运送能力将受到库存的限制。

帕帕罗告诉智库听众，向乌克兰和以色列输送武器的努力导致美国储备的弹药太少。

帕帕罗说：“我们应该补充这些库存，而且还要多补充一些。”他指的是弹药储备的数量，并表示：“我之前就对弹药库的深度不太满意，现在更不满意了。”

塔拉·科普是美联社驻五角大楼记者。她此前曾担任Sightline媒体集团驻五角大楼分社社长。