Equipment for Ukraine drawn from Kuwait wasn’t combat-ready, IG says

This story has been updated to include the name of the contractor performing the maintenance work in Kuwait at the APS location.

WASHINGTON — Equipment drawn from the U.S. Army’s Kuwait-based pre-positioned stock bound for Ukraine was not ready for combat operations, the Pentagon’s inspector general has found.

During the inspector general’s audit of that pre-positioned stock area, the fifth of seven such locations around the world, “we identified issues that resulted in unanticipated maintenance, repairs, and extended leadtimes to ensure the readiness of the military equipment selected to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the May 23 report stated.

All six of the M777 howitzers and 25 of 29 M1167 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles were not “mission ready” and required repairs before U.S. European Command could send the equipment to Ukraine.

By January 2023, the U.S. government used its drawdown authority 30 times in total to provide $18.3 billion in equipment and ammunition to Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian invasion.

Army pre-positioned stock, or APS, is meant to be kept at the highest level of readiness so that it can be used immediately in case of an emergency.

The inspector general issued the report mid-audit out of concern that “issues with poor maintenance and lax oversight of the [APS] equipment could result in future delays for equipment support provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the report read. “In addition, if U.S. forces needed this equipment, they would have encountered the same challenges.”

The 401st Army Field Support Battalion in Kuwait is responsible for overseeing contractor maintenance work, which includes issuing equipment. Army Materiel Command confirmed the contractor conducting the work at the site is Amentum, which is based in Chantilly, Virginia.

Because the battalion did not ensure the contractor was meeting its maintenance requirements for approximately 19 months on M777 howitzers, an Army Materiel Command senior representative from Kuwait issued a request for assistance, bringing in a U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command mobile repair team from Anniston Army Depot, Alabama.

When the team arrived at Camp Arifjan in March 2022, the contractor provided a howitzer that it said was fully mission capable. But the weapon system was not maintained according to the standard technical manual, per the mobile repair team, and “ ‘would have killed somebody [the operator],’ in its current condition,” the report stated.

Ukrainian artillerymen fire an M777 howitzer toward Russian positions on Nov. 23, 2022. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)

The team subsequently found that all six howitzers had operational issues. Four of the six howitzers had breech blocks improperly aligned with the rack gear, which prevented the breech from correctly locking. A breech not properly locked could result in an explosion that could kill the crew, the report noted.

Additionally, all six howitzers contained reused, old hydraulic fluid, which is not allowed because the fluid degrades over time and could lead to “disastrous results and malfunctions of critical systems,” the inspector general found.

The contractor paid the mobile repair team $114,000 for labor and travel expenses, according to the report.

As the howitzers were being prepared to leave Kuwait for shipment to Europe on June 21, 2022, one of the howitzers experienced a brake fire, likely due to the contractor not releasing the parking brake when moving it, according to the report, which cited a specialist with the mobile repair team. The contractor claimed it was likely due to leaking brake fluid, the report noted.

When the howitzers reached Poland for distribution to Ukraine, officials there said all six howitzers still had faults that made them non-mission capable, according to the report, including worn firing pins and issues with the firing mechanism. The repairs cost about $17,490 in labor and materials.

Officials said they were able to avoid delays in getting the howitzers to Ukraine, but the inspector general noted in the report the inadequate maintenance on the howitzers highlights the need to consider the time it would take to maintain and repair equipment coming from the APS site in Kuwait for Ukraine.

Prior to August 2022, the 401st declared 28 of 29 Humvees as fully mission capable, but when it received an order to pull those out for Ukraine on Aug. 24, only three of the 29 were ready, the inspector general said.

Problems with the Humvees included dead batteries, inoperative lights, faulty gauges, damaged seat belts, broken door lock latches and fluid leaks, the report listed.

In order to meet the deadline to ship the equipment to Europe, the contractor took parts from other Humvees in the inventory, including in one case a transmission, “potentially making that equipment non-mission capable,” the report noted.

When the vehicles arrived in Poland, officials there reported one of the tires on a Humvee was shredded due to dry rot. When the tire was replaced with a spare, that one also failed due to dry rot, the report described.

The officials in Poland opened up work orders to replace tires damaged with dry rot in September 2022. Additionally, the vehicles did not come with spare tires, the officials noted, causing concern they would cross the border and fail with no means to replace tires there.

Tires were ultimately pulled from other equipment for the Humvees headed to Ukraine.

The process delayed delivery to Ukraine and required significant labor and time, “pulling soldiers away from primary duties,” and cost $173,524 for labor and material, the report added.

Getting back in fighting shape

The head of Army Sustainment Command explained, in response to the report, that the service’s funding level for APS maintenance in Kuwait was 30% of the validated requirements in fiscal 2023 — about $27.8 million of the $91.3 million requirement.

And the commander stated the contractor “is not contractually obligated or appropriately resourced to maintain [APS] equipment” at standards laid out in the technical manual the inspector general followed to make determinations regarding mission-capable readiness of the equipment.

The inspector general disagreed that the contractor was not obligated to follow the same technical manual used by the inspector general and also noted in the report that the Army obligated nearly $1 billion from Aug. 31, 2016, through April 13, 2023, for the APS location.

The inspector general recommended in the report that the Army’s deputy chief of staff — or G-3/5/7, which is responsible for issuing what goes into APS — “consider the level of maintenance and leadtime required before selecting Army Prepositioned Stock [in Kuwait] equipment for sourcing Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

The commander of the 401st should also develop and implement “increased inspection procedures to not only validate that the [APS] contractor has properly corrected known maintenance deficiencies but also to conduct a thorough visual inspection of equipment and correct any deficiencies including tires damaged by dry rot, before shipping the equipment to [U.S. European Command] for transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

本文已更新，加入了在科威特 APS 地点进行维护工作的承包商名称。

华盛顿——五角大楼监察长发现，从美国陆军位于科威特的预置库存中提取并运往乌克兰的装备尚未做好作战准备。

5 月 23 日的报告指出，在监察长对该预置库存区（全球七个此类地点中的第五个）进行审计期间，“我们发现了一些问题，导致需要进行意想不到的维护、修理，并延长交付周期，以确保选定用于支持乌克兰武装部队的军事装备的战备状态。”

所有六门 M777 榴弹炮和 29 辆 M1167 高机动性多用途轮式车辆中的 25 辆都“不具备执行任务的能力”，需要进行维修，美国欧洲司令部才能将这些装备运往乌克兰。

截至 2023 年 1 月，美国政府总共动用了 30 次撤军授权，向正在抵抗俄罗斯入侵的乌克兰提供了价值 183 亿美元的装备和弹药。

陆军预置库存（APS）旨在保持最高战备状态，以便在紧急情况下立即使用。

监察长在审计过程中发布了这份报告，原因是担心“[APS]设备维护不善和监管松懈的问题可能会导致未来向乌克兰武装部队提供的设备支持出现延误”。报告指出，“此外，如果美军需要这些设备，他们也会遇到同样的问题。”

驻科威特的第401陆军野战支援营负责监督承包商的维护工作，包括发放设备。陆军物资司令部证实，在该地点进行维护工作的承包商是位于弗吉尼亚州尚蒂伊的Amentum公司。

由于该营在大约 19 个月的时间里未能确保承包商满足其对 M777 榴弹炮的维护要求，来自科威特的陆军物资司令部高级代表发出援助请求，从阿拉巴马州安尼斯顿陆军基地调来了一支美国陆军坦克汽车和武器司令部移动维修队。

2022年3月，当该小组抵达阿里夫詹营地时，承包商提供了一门据称完全具备作战能力的榴弹炮。但据移动维修小组称，这门武器系统并未按照标准技术手册进行维护，报告指出，就其目前的状态而言，“会造成人员伤亡（指操作员伤亡）”。

2022年11月23日，乌克兰炮兵用M777榴弹炮向俄军阵地开火。（Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images）

随后，调查小组发现所有六门榴弹炮都存在操作问题。其中四门榴弹炮的炮闩与齿条齿轮未正确对齐，导致炮闩无法正确锁定。报告指出，炮闩未正确锁定可能导致爆炸，造成炮组人员伤亡。

此外，监察长发现，所有六门榴弹炮都使用了重复使用的旧液压油，这是不允许的，因为液压油会随着时间的推移而劣化，并可能导致“灾难性后果和关键系统故障”。

报告显示，承包商向移动维修团队支付了 114,000 美元的人工费和差旅费。

2022年6月21日，当这些榴弹炮准备离开科威特运往欧洲时，其中一门榴弹炮发生刹车起火。据报告援引移动维修队一位专家的说法，起火原因很可能是承包商在移动火炮时没有松开驻车制动器。报告指出，承包商声称起火原因可能是刹车油泄漏。

据报道，当这批榴弹炮运抵波兰准备分发给乌克兰时，波兰官员表示，这六门榴弹炮仍然存在故障，无法执行任务，包括击针磨损和击发机构故障。维修费用（包括人工和材料）约为17490美元。

官员们表示，他们成功避免了将榴弹炮运往乌克兰的延误，但监察长在报告中指出，榴弹炮维护不足凸显了考虑从科威特APS基地运往乌克兰的设备进行维护和修理所需时间的必要性。

监察长表示，在 2022 年 8 月之前，第 401 部队宣布 29 辆悍马车中有 28 辆完全具备任务能力，但当该部队于 8 月 24 日接到命令将这些车辆调往乌克兰时，29 辆悍马车中只有 3 辆准备就绪。

报告列出的悍马车问题包括电池没电、车灯不亮、仪表故障、安全带损坏、车门锁闩坏了以及漏油。

报告指出，为了赶上向欧洲运送设备的最后期限，承包商从库存中的其他悍马车上拆卸了零件，其中一辆车甚至拆卸了变速箱，“这可能导致该设备无法执行任务”。

车辆抵达波兰后，当地官员报告称，其中一辆悍马车的一个轮胎因干裂而爆裂。报告还指出，更换备胎后，备胎也因干裂而失效。

波兰官员于 2022 年 9 月启动了更换因干裂而损坏轮胎的工作流程。此外，官员们指出，这些车辆没有配备备胎，令人担忧的是，它们在过境时可能会发生故障，而当地却没有办法更换轮胎。

最终，运往乌克兰的悍马车的轮胎是从其他设备上拆卸下来的。

报告还指出，这一过程延误了向乌克兰的交付，需要大量人力和时间，“使士兵无法履行主要职责”，并且耗费了 173,524 美元的人工和材料费用。

恢复战斗状态

陆军后勤司令部负责人回应该报告解释说，该军种在 2023 财年为科威特的 APS 维护提供的资金水平为已确认需求的 30%——约占 9130 万美元需求的 2780 万美元。

指挥官表示，承包商“没有合同义务或适当的资源来维护[APS]设备”，使其达到监察长在确定设备任务能力准备情况时所依据的技术手册中规定的标准。

监察长不同意承包商没有义务遵守监察长使用的同一技术手册的说法，并在报告中指出，陆军从 2016 年 8 月 31 日至 2023 年 4 月 13 日期间为 APS 地点拨款近 10 亿美元。

监察长在报告中建议，陆军副参谋长（或负责发布 APS 物资的 G-3/5/7）“在选择陆军预置库存（位于科威特）的装备为乌克兰武装部队采购之前，应考虑所需的维护水平和提前期”。

第 401 部队指挥官还应制定并实施“加强检查程序，不仅要验证 [APS] 承包商是否已正确纠正已知的维护缺陷，还要对设备进行彻底的目视检查，并在将设备运送至 [美国欧洲司令部] 移交给乌克兰武装部队之前，纠正任何缺陷，包括因干腐而损坏的轮胎。”

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。