Top weapons manufacturers were invited to the US Department of Defense. The main topic of the meeting concerns assistance to Ukraine.

Militarnyi informs about it.

Pentagon will be discussing the industry’s capacity to support Ukraine in a protracted war with Russia, CNN reports with reference to an official in the US Department of Defense.

The classified discussion will include proposals to speed up the production of existing systems and develop new systems critical to the Defense Department’s assistance to Ukraine.

The meeting will bring together the top eight prime defense contractors, including General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and others.

The discussions will lie within the topic that the US is “assuming this would turn out to be a years-long endeavor” with a scenario in which Ukraine would probably not be able to safely manufacture weapons inside the country.

The Pentagon officials believe that during the meeting, however, the contractors are likely to bring up the serious challenges the defense manufacturing in the US is still facing including the ongoing and severe supply chain issues and a lack of affordable labor. All of this continues to constrict defense manufacturing capacity right now, and could grow worse as increased defense spending in the budget and Ukraine contracts are “competing for the manufacturing capacity”, the official noted.

The United States has provided over $2.4 billion in US security assistance to Ukraine since President Biden took office last year, including $1.7 billion provided since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Previously, the Pentagon has confirmed that the American Switchblade kamikaze drones have already arrived in Ukraine.