Biden to visit Lockheed plant as weapons stockpile strained

By AAMER MADHANI and BEN FOX
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden visits a Lockheed Martin plant that manufactures an antitank weapons system, he’s certain to herald the U.S.-made arms as a gamechanger in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. But Biden’s planned Tuesday trip to the Alabama factory that makes the Javelin weapons system is drawing attention to a growing concern as the war drags on: Can the U.S. sustain the cadence in shipping vast amounts of arms to Ukraine while maintaining the healthy stockpile it may need should conflict erupt with North Korea, Iran or elsewhere? A senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the U.S. has provided at least 7,000 Javelins to Ukraine in recent years.