The US is accelerating its weapons acquisition process to replenish the stockpile

The United States is accelerating the purchase of weapons and ammunition to replenish its own stockpiles.

Douglas Bush, the Army’s Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, announced this, Reuters reports.

The U.S. Army is accelerating its weapons acquisition process to speed through a backlog of contracts needed to replenish U.S. stocks of weapons depleted by arms shipments to Ukraine.

He shared with the reporters that the accelerated contracting effort hinges on running those processes simultaneously.

It is reported that the United States awarded approximately $1 billion in contracts to weapons producers since the second half of October. Those mostly cover ammunition and missiles.

In particular, the United States signed a $477 million contract with Lockheed Martin. Bush mentioned that this contracting pace is exceeding internal Pentagon spending speed benchmarks by 15%.

According to recent Pentagon contracting data, $2.6 billion worth of contracts were awarded to replace weapons shipped to Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Kyiv has received approximately $17.9 billion worth of arms from Washington.

As previously reported, the Pentagon would be purchasing the additional GMLRS missiles used by the HIMARS and the M270 MLRS launchers.

The U.S. Army awarded multiple contract options worth over $520 million to Lockheed Martin for its Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to replenish the U.S. arsenals.

“This award enables us to replenish our own inventory while providing critical capabilities for our allies and international partners,” Douglas Bush said.

In October, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Tyklet claimed that the company had agreed terms with representatives of its supply chain to increase production of HIMARS rocket launchers to 96 units per year.

A few months earlier, U.S. officials visited facilities responsible for producing High Mobility Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS).