General Discussion

Some go back a few years, with all the PR about how we were selling old stock to Ukraine and we'd be sure to put the billions of $s into ordering a ton more munitions to replace them--Patriot missiles, THAAD munitions, artillery, etc., etc.

Except that barely happened. Even in Britain the huge upsurge in munitions production still has barely started, what with environmental impact studies, regulations, etc., etc. Then again, it's only been 4 years and you know, nothing fast happens during war.

But the not-so-old PR about replacing aging munitions reflected the fact that the peace dividend meant we didn't replace munitions as they aged. And the ageing never stops. So there.

Then there's the need to replace those munitions lost during combat in Syria, let's say, fighting ISIS, or even in Afghanistan. Some were replaced but slowly.

Then there's the much greater (no, not really ... ) drawdown of munitions under the current operation. Or the drawdown last summer, perhaps.

But a lot of people only can think there's only ever possibly one reason for anything.