The U.S. Department of Defense wants to simultaneously meet the munitions needs of both Israel and Ukraine.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth noted that Congress would need to approve additional funding to ensure the Pentagon’s munitions production and acquisition plans.

Wormuth said the US Army was still in the “early stages” of reviewing Israel’s requests for support.

“One thing that is really important in terms of the munitions in particular and our ability to potentially support both the Israelis and the Ukrainians simultaneously is additional funding from Congress to be able to increase our capacity, in terms of our capacity to expand production and then to also pay for the munitions themselves,” Army Secretary said.

She emphasized that additional support from Congress is needed and expressed hope that “we will see that soon.”

Previously, The Telegraph reported that US President Joe Biden’s team plans to ask Congress for the largest aid package for Ukraine in history, which could reach $100 billion.

However, according to U.S. lawmakers, $100 billion is the ceiling, and in reality, such a package could be as low as $50 billion.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Army has signed contracts worth about $1.5 billion to build up artillery shell reserves.

The army aims to increase the monthly production of 155-mm artillery shells to 80,000 per month by 2025, which will ensure uninterrupted supply to Ukraine and the creation of its own reserves.

Since the chain for the production of artillery shell components is spread across the country, the army signed a separate contract with each company.

Due to the long idle time of production facilities, plans for monthly production of shells were subject to change. Thus, at the beginning of the production expansion campaign, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition Doug Bush reported in August that 85,000 shells would be produced by 2025, and in September, that figure rose to 100,000 units. After analyzing the state of production facilities and discussions with manufacturers, the number of monthly shells produced was reduced to 80,000 units.