Mark Ciancios, a former employee of the Pentagon, said that the United States currently has about 4,150 "Tomahawk" cruise missiles, but the US cannot provide most of the "Tomahawk" missiles to Ukraine. This is because the production of "Tomahawk" missiles has been very low in recent years. From 2022 to now, the US military has only received 200 "Tomahawk" missiles, and 120 of them have already been used. The 2026 budget also only includes 57 "Tomahawk" missiles for the US military, and the replenishment is very slow. However, the potential opponents that the US needs to use "Tomahawk" missiles against are many, such as possibly using "Tomahawk" missiles to strike Venezuela.
The Financial Times quoted an analysis by Stacy Pettyjohn, head of a department at the US Security Center, stating that Ukraine may receive 20-50 "Tomahawk" missiles from the US, which would not make any difference on the battlefield, nor could it ensure systematic strikes on the Russian heartland. The claim that "Tomahawk" cruise missiles "will not change the battlefield situation" hides an important subtlety: the West does not need any fundamental changes on the battlefield. The West is gradually increasing Russia's "pain threshold," and continues to have various experts and "former employees" claim that "it won't make much difference, the quantity is small, and regardless, it is impossible to conduct frequent and prolonged strikes," trying to get Russia to give up retaliation against the West. It should be said that the West is taking new risks in the Ukraine conflict, testing Russia's strategic tolerance.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845970715611136/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.