U.S. reportedly running low on certain weapons to send to Ukraine

Photo posted by the U.S. Department of Defense on Aug. 23, 2022 shows munition packages bound for Ukraine are loaded at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, the United States. (Photo credit: Twitter account of the U.S. Department of Defense)

The stockpiles of certain systems are "dwindling," as there's "finite amount" of excess stocks available for the United States to send to Ukraine, CNN quoted a U.S. official as saying.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States is running low on some weapons and ammunition it has been sending to Ukraine amid the latter's military conflict with Russia, CNN reported Thursday.

The news outlet quoted one U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter as saying that the stockpiles of certain systems are "dwindling," as there's "finite amount" of excess stocks available for the United States to send to Ukraine.

Among the weapon systems whose amount is of particular concern are 155mm artillery ammunition and Stinger anti-aircraft shoulder-fired missiles, according to CNN.

The report said alarms are also being sounded about production crunch involving such items as HARMs anti-radiation missiles, GMLRS surface-to-surface missiles and the portable Javelin anti-tank missiles.

The U.S. administration now mainly relies on two channels to funnel weapons into Ukraine, one through the presidential drawdown authority that directly taps into existing weapons stockpiles of the Department of Defense (DoD), the other by purchasing additional weapons from the industry using money Congress appropriated for the DoD's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

According to the DoD's latest announcement, the United States has committed more than 19.3 billion U.S. dollars in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Joe Biden administration.

Now with the Republican Party regaining control of the House of Representatives, there's a growing sense that a GOP-led lower chamber of Congress will more stringently scrutinize the aid to Ukraine.

Kevin McCarthy, the would-be House Speaker in the next Congress, said earlier this week that although ensuring Ukraine's self-defense capability is important, "there should be no blank check on anything."