On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) spoke with the Alabama media about a number of topics of concern. Chief among these are America’s dwindling supplies of weapons and munitions. The United States, for the last 20 months, has been supplying Ukraine with artillery shells, Lancer missiles, Patriot missiles, Stinger missiles, drones, Bradley armored fighting vehicles, vehicles, parts, and other ordinance. The War between Ukraine and Russia is by far the largest war that has been fought in Europe since World War II, and the human costs have been staggering. The quantities of arms and munitions Ukraine has needed to fend off the Russians have also been enormous, and now it is affecting American stockpiles.
A reporter asked Sen. Tuberville about the situation.
“Well, if you go by what our President, Joe Biden, has said recently, we are running out of weapons,” Sen. Tuberville said. “They won’t give us a count on the weapons and munitions that we are behind on. It is kind of a secret in the White House. We need to build more. It is my understanding, and I have been to some places in Alabama where we build rockets, where we build missiles, where we build munitions. They are struggling to keep up. We are building them as fast as we possibly can.”
Hamas’s recent attack on Israel and the war that ignited will also strain U.S. stockpiles and the industrial capacity of American defense contractors.
“Israel is killing terrorists who want us dead. I am in full support of Israel,” Tuberville said. “It is not just Ukraine that we are concerned with. Israel and China, with possibly Taiwan. This is a very dangerous time. The most dangerous time in my lifetime on this Earth.”
A number of Alabama defense plants are involved in building the weaponry supplying the U.S. armed forces and its allies as well as the Ukrainian armed forces, Taiwan’s defense needs, and now the Israeli Defense Force’s actions in Gaza.
“We are very proud that we have people in Alabama that are involved in the munitions construction,” Tuberville said. “They are behind, but they are only behind because we are using them faster than we can build them, so we are fortunate that we have some good people in Alabama that are involved in it.”
Tuberville is concerned that this situation could potentially negatively impact the United States.
“It affects our security if we can’t protect ourselves with the munitions that we are behind on,” Tuberville said. “Hopefully, we will continue to make munitions. The problem that we have is the manufacturing that was sent overseas starting in the nineties with Bill Clinton and has continued on over the years. President Trump tried to get manufacturing back in this country, but unfortunately, he was held to just one term. Hopefully, we will get him back in office, so we will continue to get manufacturing back.”
Tuberville said that the U.S. needs to be self sufficient in order to be able to defend ourselves without having problems with supply chains that stretch around the world.
“Manufacturing is not coming back to this country,” Tuberville said. “It is staying in Asia. We need to have an opportunity to defend ourself and be self-responsible. We found out during COVID that we don’t make any drugs, and it really hurt this country. It probably was a big reason that we lost a lot more people than we should have during COVID. We need to build and manufacture things in this country. We need to get people back to work and understand that we need to be self-sufficient.”
Tuberville said that the war in Ukraine “has been in a stalemate for the last year.” Tuberville believes the Biden administration should bring that war to a negotiated end rather than encouraging Ukraine to win a military victory at all costs.
To that end, Tuberville is opposed to more aid for Ukraine, but he favors the aid for Israel.
“America has already sent more than $75 billion to aid Ukraine since the war began, now Joe Biden wants $60 billion more to be sent,” Tuberville said. “It’s not working. The war has been in a stalemate for a year in Ukraine. I have voted against additional funding for Ukraine and will continue to do the same thing.” “I do not support sending another dime to Ukraine.”
Tuberville is opposing the Biden administration’s combining of aid for Israel, which he supports, with aid for Ukraine, which he opposes.
Tommy Tuberville is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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