Majority of NATO Members ‘Tapped Out’ After Sending Military Stores to Ukraine

They say you shouldn’t arm yourself with a knife if you’re headed into a gunfight.

But what if that’s your only option?

That might be where the U.S. finds itself after reducing conventional weapons stockpiles and then providing much of what was left in the cupboard to Ukrainian forces fighting off Russian invaders.

The Pentagon may feel a lot like Old Mother Hubbard if America should find itself involved in a conventional land war in Europe or Asia — possibilities that seemed remote less than two years ago, but now look slightly less outré given recent Russian aggression and Chinese and North Korean saber rattling.

Both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict are burning through “weaponry and ammunition at a pace not seen since World War II,” The New York Times reported.

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The problem is that military planners in Europe and the U.S. never expected to see another war like World War II, at least not since the fall of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, and have instead focused their military spending on “lighter, more expeditionary forces” like light infantry and special operations units.

For example, Ukraine is expending thousands of artillery rounds daily, whereas the U.S. in Afghanistan might have taken a full week or longer to run through that many munitions.

“Last summer in the Donbas region [alone], the Ukrainians were firing 6,000 to 7,000 artillery rounds each day, a senior NATO official said,” according to The Times. “The Russians were firing 40,000 to 50,000 rounds per day. By comparison, the United States produces only 15,000 rounds each month.”

Nor can the U.S. simply look to other NATO nations to fill in the gap. In fact, many are in worse shape than the U.S.

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“Smaller countries have exhausted their potential, another NATO official [told The Times], with 20 of its 30 members ‘pretty tapped out.’ But the remaining 10 can still provide more, he suggested, especially larger allies. That would include France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.”

Of course, what’s sauce for the…

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