„This is literally a gun fight. … They‘re running out of inventory,“ he said. „We are trying to ramp up our production of the kind of artillery shells that they‘re using most. But that production rate is still not where we wanted it to be.“

„So you‘re sending those cluster munitions because we don‘t have enough of the kind of munitions they need?“ Raddatz clarified.

„That is right,“ Kirby said.

He also suggested the bombs are intended to be temporary, „to help bridge the gap as we ramp up production of normal … artillery shells.“