Pentagon: Low weapons supplies aren’t hurting ISIS fight

The Pentagon says the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has the weapons it needs, even as munitions supplies run low.

“Obviously, the Department of Defense will prioritize supply to where it’s needed,” Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the campaign, said in a press briefing on Wednesday. “And as an active battlefield, obviously, priority of supply will come to us.”

His comments come after Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Tuesday said supplies are starting to run low because of the fight against ISIS.

{mosads}“We’ve recently been hitting ISIL with so many GPS-guided smart bombs and laser-guided rockets that we are starting to run low on the ones that we use against terrorists the most,” he said in a speech previewing the Pentagon’s fiscal 2017 budget request at the Economic Club in Washington, using an alternate acronym for the terror group.

The Pentagon plans to spend $1.8 billion to buy 45,000 more of those bombs, Carter added.

On Wednesday, Warren elaborated on Carter’s remarks, saying the additional bombs will help operations stay apace.

“It has not had an impact on our ability to conduct our operations at all,” he said. “So, the secretary’s announcement to buy additional munitions will only serve to ensure that that situation remains constant.”

Carter’s overall budget proposal for fiscal year 2017 would increase spending on the war against ISIS by 50 percent to $7.5 billion. The Pentagon’s total budget would be $582.7 billion.