US admiral says wars in Ukraine, Mideast eating away at US air defense stocks
Sam Paparo warns efforts against Russia and Iran could harm American readiness for conflict with China
Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are eating into US stockpiles of air defenses, the top US admiral overseeing American forces in the Asia-Pacific region said on Tuesday.
The admission by Admiral Sam Paparo could draw the attention of members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, who are more skeptical of the war in Ukraine and who argue that US President Joe Biden has failed to prepare for a potential conflict with China.
“With some of the [Patriot missiles] that have been employed, some of the air-to-air missiles that have been employed, it’s now eating into stocks and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said during an event at the Brookings Institution.
Paparo said the expenditure of US air defenses “imposes costs on the readiness” of the US to respond in the Asia-Pacific, particularly given that China is the most capable adversary in the world.
“Over the summer I saw the most rehearsal and the most joint exercises from the People’s Republic of China that I’d ever seen,” he noted, in remarks quoted by USNI News.
Biden’s administration has been steadily arming Ukraine and Israel with its most sophisticated air defenses.
The US Navy has also been directly defending shipping in the Red Sea in the face of a campaign of missile and drone attacks from Houthis in Yemen, launched shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel started the ongoing war between Israel and various Iranian proxies.
In the case of Ukraine, Biden has given Kyiv a full array of defenses, including Patriot missiles and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile systems.
The US last month deployed to Israel a THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, and about 100 US troops to operate it, after Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel, its second such direct assault against Israel since April. The THAAD is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
