The White House national security adviser warned Wednesday that the United States could quickly run out of ammunition in the event of war with China, and called for continuing to increase arms production, against a backdrop of conflict between the Russia and Ukraine. “If we end up, God forbid, getting into an all-out war with the PRC,” Jake Sullivan began, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China, before adding: “But any war with a country such as the PRC, an army like that of the PRC, will involve the very rapid depletion of ammunition stocks.
This close adviser to Joe Biden also urged the next administration of President-elect Donald Trump to maintain the rise of the American defense industry, increasingly called upon to come to the aid of Ukraine in conflict with Russia since February 2022 and the invasion of Moscow troops. On Monday, Washington announced additional military aid for Ukraine, valued at $725 million and including missiles and anti-personnel mines.
“A large part of the answer to ensuring the good health of the defense industrial sector over time lies in the ability to regenerate, augment and manufacture during conflict” and not simply upstream, continued Jake Sullivan, specifying that the situation on the ground in Ukraine made it possible to draw this conclusion.
100,000 shells per month in 2026
The national security adviser further called on Congress and the incoming Trump administration to continue working on President Biden’s proposal to create a munitions revolving fund. Proposed at $500 million per year, this fund should allow the Pentagon to obtain necessary munitions, even if they run out due to ongoing wars, such as in Ukraine. “We must continue to ramp up and accelerate the production and supply of what we need most,” he said.
For example, he praised efforts to produce 155 millimeter caliber artillery shells, which are used in particular in Ukraine. According to Jake Sullivan, the United States will produce 55,000 of these munitions per month by the end of Joe Biden’s term on January 20, an increase of nearly 400%, with the goal of reaching 100,000 per month at the start. 2026. But advisers to the 45th and future 47th President Donald Trump, including his Vice President-elect JD Vance, have said that American resources would be better allocated to counter China, in a context of growing rivalries.