DOD Inspector General Says Pentagon Has No Plan for Sustaining Military Hardware Sent to Ukraine

Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch has warned that all of the big-ticket hardware, particularly armored vehicles and air defense systems, that the U.S. has sent to Ukraine will soon be useless unless the Pentagon comes up with a long-term plan to sustain it. One senior Army official told Storch that continued reliance on existing U.S. Army stocks “may require a choice between continued support for Ukraine and meeting the minimum readiness requirements for U.S. Army units,” the IG report said, according to Stars & Stripes. Not having maintenance requirements for the weapons systems it provides to Ukraine prevents the DOD from predicting costs or assessing the impact on U.S. military units that also operate these systems, Storch said. As a result, the Pentagon may need to commit more resources “at significant cost” to U.S. taxpayers or risk the ability to perform other U.S. missions, the report said.