Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
The CEO of Raytheon got asked on their conference call if higher demand for stingers would boost their earnings. But apparently the US hasn't ordered any for 18 years (!) and many of the components are so obsolete that they can't even get them any more, so ramping up production will take some time as they have to source new suppliers.
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Yeah, they were planning on phasing them out and the US has already sent Ukraine about 25% of their Stinger missiles, so that supply is basically gone in the near term. Javelins are similar, as the US has already sent the equivalent of about 5-7 years of acquisitions to Ukraine and it'll likely take a year or so to really ramp up production to even begin to replace those. The characterization of the US being some limitless supply of high-tech weaponry that can be transferred to Ukraine really isn't accurate, at least based on current production levels. At the same time, Russia is also depleting its weapon stocks, so they'll experience similar difficulties.