Even within the next few days, the Pentagon could move military equipment to Ukraine if the Senate approves the bill as it has a network of storage facilities in the US and Europe that hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kiev desperately needs..

The U.S. feels it needs to speed up the process because, as CIA Director Bill Burns said last week, without additional U.S. help, Ukraine could lose the war with Russia by the end of this year.

Parliament approved funding 61 billion dollars for the war-torn country on Saturday. The bill now goes to the Senate, which is expected to begin consideration the day after tomorrow Tuesday with some preliminary votes that afternoon. Final approval is expected sometime next week, paving the way for Biden to sign it into law.

After the vote in Parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude, saying the aid “will prevent the expansion of the war, save thousands of lives and help both countries become stronger.” For his part, President Joe Biden said he would “immediately” sign the decision.

As Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder explains if that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that allows us to move material very quickly.”

The Pentagon had supplies ready for months, but was not moving them because it had already spent all the funding Congress had appropriated to support Ukraine, sending weapons, spending more than $44 billion worth of maintenance, training and spares money since invasion of Russia in February 2022.

How the US can quickly move weapons to Ukraine

When the aid package for Ukraine is announced, the weapons will be provided through the presidential withdrawal authority, which allows the military to withdraw its stockpiles immediately.

The presidential withdrawal authority, or PDA as it is known, allowed the military to send billions of dollars worth of ammunition, air defense missile launchers, tanks, vehicles and other equipment to Ukraine.

“In the past, we’ve seen weapons transferred through presidential authority arrive within days,” said Brad Bowman, director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

These stockpiles are withdrawn from bases or storage facilities in the US or from European locations where the US has already increased weapons to reduce the time it will take to deliver them once funding is approved.

US inventory reduction

As the war in Ukraine drags on, the US has begun sending ever larger, more powerful and expensive systems to the war front. They included entire air defense systems, armored vehicles, sophisticated missiles — even Abrams tanks.

Replacing these systems costs more and the military increases its debt. In addition, the military has in some cases chosen to replace older systems shipped to Ukraine with more expensive, higher-tech ones in the US.

As a result, the military leadership informed Congress that without passage of the foreign aid bill, the money would run out and funds would have to be moved from other accounts.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, said the department would not have enough money to bring back to the U.S. troops serving in Europe or train units in the U.S.

Military depots in the US

The military has vast weapons storage facilities in the US for millions of rounds of ammunition of all sizes, ready to be used in the event of war.

For example, the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma spans 45,000 acres connected by rail and has the ability to transport up to 435 15-ton munitions containers by order of the President.

The facility is also a major storage site for one of the munitions widely used on the Ukrainian battlefield, 155 mm shell rounds.

Stocks in Europe

According to a US military official, the US could send some ammunition “almost immediately” to Ukraine because there are stockpiles in Europe.

Among the weapons that could go very quickly are the 155mm shells and other artillery equipment, along with some anti-aircraft munitions.

A number of sites across Germany, Poland and other European states also help Ukraine maintain systems sent to the front. For example, Germany has set up a maintenance hub for Kiev’s fleet of Leopard 2 tanks in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.

Nearby maintenance hubs speed up turnaround time to make necessary repairs to western systems.

Zelensky appeals for quick approval and transfer of weapons to Ukraine

The president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the US House of Representatives’ approval of $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, but called on Washington to make the bill law and move forward with the actual arms transfer, saying long-range weapons and air defense systems were the biggest priorities .

In an interview with NBC, Zelensky said that passing the bill would send a strong message to Russia that Washington stands by Kiev and that it will not be “a second Afghanistan.”

“I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine and we will have a chance for victory,” Zelensky said through an interpreter. But he repeatedly called on US lawmakers to act quickly to pass the bill in the Senate.

“It’s really necessary to get it to the last point. It’s necessary to get it passed by the Senate … so that we have some tangible help for the soldiers on the front lines as soon as possible, not in another six months,” Zelensky said.