Pentagon Ukrainian weapons pause part of the global review of military aid when the focus changes to China
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The recent suspension in the US to send Patriot missiles and ammunition to Ukraine is part of a broader global review of military aid, driven in part by the Pentagon’s China and Rely policy directors. Elbridge Colby.
“A competency review is being conducted to ensure that US military aid is consistent with our defense priorities,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters this week.
That review is part of a plan that Colby defended to protect the US resources needed for war in the Indo-Pacific.
Based on the first news of the suspension, Pentagon officials say it US ministries stockpilecame after the US and Iran exchanged strikes with each other in the Middle East.
The US has suspended the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, like these 155 mm M795 artillery projectiles. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
However, Parnell wrote to X that it was “wrong” to suggest that Colby had caught other administrative authorities from the off guard with a pause in aid. Colby “provides policy recommendations on a daily basis to the Secretary of Defense and the President,” but they have the ultimate saying, he said.
White House officials confirmed with Fox News Digital that they “aware of the suspension in advance.”
“The president and senior officials hope that DOD will review aid allocations on a regular basis to ensure that DOD is in line with America’s first agenda,” the official said.
Colby has long advocated for limiting resources in Europe and the Middle East in case the war over Taiwan is needed.
“What I’ve been trying to fire Signal Flares is that it’s important to focus and enable our own powers for the effective and reasonable defense of Taiwan and Taiwan, and for the Japanese to do more.”
“European first policy is not something that America needs at this very dangerous time. We need to focus on China and Asia – obviously,” he wrote in X last year.
Elbridge Colby is the Pentagon’s policy director. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The weapon, including missile interceptors and 155 mm ammunition shells, is already on its way to Ukraine, US officials told Fox News.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, the US has provided nearly $66 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, the Pentagon noted.
“Part of our job is to give the President a framework that we can use to assess how many ammunition we have and where we send them,” Parnell added. “We cannot arm everyone in the world.”
Still, critics like former GOP MP Adam Kinzinger claimed that Colby had “blood in his hand” on the halt.
R-PA. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has called for “emergency cases” from the White House and the Department of Defense, saying, “we will review our country’s weapons and munitions stockpile and ensure that the United States is fully committed to providing Ukraine with the resources it needs urgently.”
The Pentagon will stop shipping weapons to Ukraine over US stockpile concerns
Rep. Adam Kintzinger claimed that Elbridge Colby had “blood in his hand” to suspend assistance to Ukraine. (Reuters/vyacheslav madiyevskyy)
Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon official who worked with Colby in Policy, defended his past colleagues in X. @Elbridge Colby Putting the interests of your country and your own military first, they are crumpled so badly. ”
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Jen Griffin of Fox News contributed to this report.