“You’re allowing the Ukrainians to defend themselves,” Biden told the workers, his podium flanked by Javelin missile launchers and shipping containers. “And, quite frankly, they’re making fools of the Russian military in many instances.”

The president toured the Lockheed Martin factory in Alabama and said Ukrainian parents are naming their children “Javelin” or “Javelina” because of the weapons’ successes.

“Every worker in this facility and every American taxpayer is directly contributing to the case for freedom,” Biden said.

The president’s visit also drew 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 a healthy stockpile it may need if conflict erupts with North Korea, Iran or elsewhere?

The U.S. has provided at least 7,000 Javelins, including some transferred during the Trump administration, or about one-third of its stockpile, to Ukraine in recent years, according to an analysis by Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies international security program. The Biden administration says it has committed to sending 5,500 Javelins to Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion.

Analysts also estimate that the United States has sent about one-quarter of its stockpile of shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investors last week during a quarterly call that his company, which makes the weapons system, wouldn’t be able to ramp up production until next year, due to parts shortages.

“Could this be a problem? The short answer is, ‘Probably, yes,’” said Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and former Office of Management and Budget specialist on Pentagon budget strategy, war funding and procurement programs.

He added that Stingers and Javelins were where “we’re seeing the most significant inventory issues” and that production of both weapons systems has been limited in recent years.

The Russian invasion offers the U.S. and European defense industry a big opportunity to bolster profits as lawmakers from Washington to Warsaw are primed to increase defense spending in response to Russian aggression. Defense contractors, however, face the same supply chain and labor shortage challenges that other manufacturers are facing, along with some others that are specific to the industry.

Biden noted that each Javelin produced requires 200 computer chips, but semiconductors are in short supply and limiting the availability of everything from autos to kitchen appliances. Biden is urging that legislation be approved to fund the manufacturing of computer chips in the U.S., though that is a longer-term fix to immediate pressures that militaries, businesses and consumers face now.

The war will mean increased sales for some defense contractors, including Raytheon, which makes the Stinger missiles that Ukrainian troops have used to knock out Russian aircraft. The company is also part of a joint venture with Lockheed Martin that makes the Javelins.

Lockheed Martin’s facility in Troy, Alabama has the capacity to manufacture about 2,100 Javelins per year. Biden’s trip overlapped with his push for an additional $33 billion in security and economic assistance for Kyiv. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday he hoped quick bipartisan agreement on the security package could be reached so the Senate could begin considering it “as early as next week.”

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday that America’s military readiness is not dependent on one system. He said that every time the Pentagon develops a package of weapons and systems to send to Ukraine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the department do an assessment on what the impact will be on readiness.

“It’s not about counting, say, Javelins and being able to say that when you reach a certain level then all your readiness is gone,” Kirby said. “The Javelin is an anti-armor capability, so we judge it all as a conglomerate of what’s our ability to meet this particular mission set, realizing that a Javelin isn’t the only capability you have against armor.”

The lightweight but lethal Javelin has helped the Ukrainians inflict major damage on Russia’s larger and better-equipped military. As a result, the weapon has gained almost mythic regard, celebrated with a Javelin song and images of Mary Magdalene carrying a Javelin becoming a meme in Ukraine.

Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said in a recent CNBC interview that demand for the Javelin and other weapon systems would increase broadly over time because of the Russian invasion. He said the company was working “to get our supply chain ramped up.”

“We have the ability to meet current production demands, are investing in increased capacity and are exploring ways to further increase production as needed,” Lockheed Martin, which is based in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a statement.

The game-changing impact of those arms is exactly what President Joe Biden hopes to spotlight as he visits a Lockheed Martin plant in Alabama on Tuesday that builds the portable Javelin anti-tank weapons that have played a crucial role in Ukraine.

But Biden’s visit is also drawing attention to a growing concern as the war drags on: Can the U.S. sustain the cadence of shipping vast amounts of arms to Ukraine while maintaining the healthy stockpile it may need if a new conflict erupts with North Korea, Iran or elsewhere?

The U.S. already has provided about 7,000 Javelins, including some that were delivered during the Trump administration, about one-third of its stockpile, to Ukraine, according to an analysis by Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies international security program. The Biden administration says it has committed to sending about 5,500 to Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than two months ago.

Analysts also estimate that the United States has sent about one-quarter of its stockpile of shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investors last week during a quarterly call that his company, which makes the weapons system, wouldn’t be able to ramp up production until next year due to parts shortages.

“Could this be a problem? The short answer is, ‘Probably, yes,’” said Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and former government specialist on Pentagon budget strategy, war funding and procurement.

He said that Stingers and Javelins were where “we’re seeing the most significant inventory issues,” and production of both weapons systems has been limited in recent years.

The Russian invasion offers the U.S. and European defense industry a big opportunity to bolster profits as lawmakers from Washington to Warsaw are primed to increase defense spending in response to Russian aggression. Defense contractors, however, face the same supply chain and labor shortage challenges that other manufacturers are facing, along with some others that are specific to the industry.

Military spending by the U.S. and around the world was rising even before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Biden’s proposed 2023 budget sought $773 billion for the Pentagon, an annual increase of about 4%.

Globally, total military spending rose 0.7% to more than $2 trillion for the first time in 2021, according to an April report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia ranked fifth, as its spending on weapons increased ahead of its invasion of Ukraine.

The war will mean increased sales for some defense contractors, including Raytheon, which makes the Stinger missiles Ukrainian troops have used to knock out Russian aircraft. The company is also part of a joint venture with Lockheed Martin that makes the Javelins.

Biden will visit Lockheed Martin’s facility in Troy, Ala., which has the capacity to manufacture about 2,100 Javelins per year. The trip comes as he presses Congress to quickly approve his request for an additional $33 billion in security and economic assistance for Kyiv, Western allies and restocking weapons the U.S. has sent to those countries.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday he hoped quick bipartisan agreement on the security package could be reached so the Senate could begin considering it “as early as next week.”

The president is expected to use his remarks to highlight the importance of the Javelins and other U.S. weaponry in helping Ukraine’s military put up a vigorous fight as he makes the case to keep security and economic assistance flowing.

A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity, said the Pentagon is working with defense contractors “to evaluate the health of weapons systems’ production lines and examine bottlenecks in every component and step of the manufacturing process.” The administration is also considering a range of options, if needed, to boost production of both Javelins and Stingers, the official said.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday that America’s military readiness is not dependent on one system, such as the Javelin. He said that every time the Pentagon develops a package of weapons to send to Ukraine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the department assesses the broader impact.

“It’s not about counting say Javelins and being able to say that when you reach a certain level then all your readiness is gone,” Kirby said. “The Javelin is an anti-armor capability, so we judge it all as a conglomerate of what’s our ability to meet this particular mission set, realizing that a Javelin isn’t the only capability you have against armor.”

Cancian, the former government specialist on defense budget strategy, said the fact that Stingers and Javelins were not included in the most recent tranche of weapons the Biden administration announced it was sending to Ukraine could be a sign that Pentagon officials are mindful about inventory as they conduct contingency planning for other possible conflicts.

“There’s no question that whatever war plan they’re looking at there is risk associated with the depleting levels of Stingers and Javelins, and I’m sure that they’re having that discussion at the Pentagon,” he said.

The U.S. military effort to move weaponry to Eastern Europe for Ukraine’s fight has been Herculean. From Dover Air Base in Delaware, U.S. airmen have carried out nearly 70 missions to deliver some 7 million pounds of Javelins, Stingers, 155mm howitzers, helmets and other essentials to Eastern Europe since February. Col. Matt Husemann, commander of the 436th Airlift Wing, described the mission as a “whole of government approach that’s delivering hope.”

“It is awesome,” said Husemann, after providing AP with a recent tour of the airlift operation.

The lightweight but lethal Javelin has helped the Ukrainians inflict major damage on Russia’s larger and better-equipped military. As a result, the weapon has gained almost mythic regard, celebrated with a Javelin song and images of Mary Magdalene carrying a Javelin becoming a meme in Ukraine.

Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said in a recent CNBC interview that demand for the Javelin and other weapon systems would increase broadly over time because of the Russian invasion. He said the company was working “to get our supply chain ramped up.”

“We have the ability to meet current production demands, are investing in increased capacity and are exploring ways to further increase production as needed,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

Pentagon officials recently sat down with some of the leading defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman to discuss efforts to ramp up production.

The big defense contractors face some serious challenges.

Raytheon, for example, can’t simply crank out Stingers to replace the 1,400 that the U.S. sent to Ukraine. Hayes, the Raytheon CEO, said in a recent conference call with analysts that the company has only limited supplies of components to make the missile. Only one undisclosed country has been buying them in recent years, and the Pentagon hasn’t bought any new ones in nearly 20 years.

Sanctions further complicate the picture. Companies must find new sources of important raw materials such as titanium, a crucial component in aerospace manufacturing that is produced in Russia.

Concerns about the Stinger stockpile have been raised by House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama. The two in March wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, describing the stockpile issue as one of “urgency.”

Rogers said he remains concerned that the matter hasn’t been properly addressed.

“I’ve been asking the DoD for almost two months for a plan to replenish our Stinger stockpile as well as our Javelin launch units,” Rogers said. “I worry that without a readily available replacement or fully active production lines, we could leave Ukraine and our NATO allies in a vulnerable position.”

Reeves reported from Birmingham, Ala., and Huff from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

Mayorkas was confirmed by a 56-43 vote, the narrowest margin yet for a Biden Cabinet nominee. The first immigrant to serve in the job, he is expected to lead a broad policy overhaul of an agency that was accused of being deeply politicized as it carried out President Donald Trump’s initiatives on immigration and law enforcement.

Mayorkas is a former federal prosecutor who previously served as a senior DHS official. His nomination was stalled in the Senate by Republicans who wanted to question him further on Biden’s plans for immigration policy. He also faced questions over his management of an investor visa program under President Barack Obama.

Biden’s team had hoped to have Mayorkas confirmed by Jan. 20. But Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri placed a hold on the nomination on Jan. 19, forcing a delay in the confirmation vote.

Democrats bristled at the delay.

“My friends on the other side don’t have to agree with Mr. Mayorkas on the finer points of every policy, but surely we can all agree that he knows the department, he understands the threats to our nation’s security and has what it takes to lead DHS,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as he called for a vote to lift a Republican filibuster on the nomination.

Even some Republican senators who had expressed reservations about the nomination conceded DHS needed a confirmed secretary with the nation facing so many challenges, including the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election.

“I drove through the National Guard again to get here this morning. We’ve got some real issues,” Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said as he voted to send the nomination from the committee to the full Senate for the vote.

Mayorkas, whose family came to the U.S. from Cuba as refugees in 1960 and whose mother had fled the Holocaust, was a federal prosecutor in Southern California before he joined the Obama administration, first as head of the immigration services agency and then as deputy secretary of DHS.

“Mr. Mayorkas is uniquely qualified to make sure the Department of Homeland Security is working to protect people from all backgrounds, all communities and all walks of life,” Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said from the Senate floor.

Under Trump, the department was frequently in turmoil and mired in controversy. The agency carried out heavy-handed immigration enforcement initiatives, most notoriously separating migrant children from their families as part of a zero-tolerance campaign in 2018.

Over the summer, the department was widely condemned, including by some former secretaries, for deploying tactical agents without nametags and insignia to protests in Portland, Oregon, against the wishes of local authorities.

In September, a senior official filed a whistleblower complaint accusing Homeland Security leaders of downplaying threat warnings that Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian election interference and the rising threat posed by white supremacists. And the president ousted the widely respected head of the DHS cybersecurity agency in November for his defense of the integrity of the 2020 election.

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who spent more than a year in the post without Senate confirmation, and other senior officials turned routine news conferences into what to many appeared to be Trump campaign events, touting relatively minor enforcement actions as major policy achievements.

Mayorkas, who rejected a proposal to separate families when he served under Obama, has pledged to “end the inhumane and unjust treatment of immigrants,” but also to maintain border enforcement.

“We are a nation of immigrants, and we are also a nation of laws,” he said during his confirmation hearing.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents U.S. Border Patrol agents and others, said in a recent interview with the Fox Business Network that migrant smugglers have increased their attempts to bring people, including children, into the country because of a perception that the Biden administration will be less hostile. But he said he was “optimistic” about the new president’s choice of Mayorkas.

“He has nominated a very good secretary for DHS, a secretary that understands that policies affect border security,” he said.

Judd predicted Mayorkas would get rid of some Trump policies but look for others that would “effectuate the same thing” as was done under the previous administration. “And if he can do that, then we can still maintain border security.”

At Mayorkas’ confirmation hearing, senators raised the 2015 report by the Office of Inspector General that criticized him for his management of a program that granted U.S. residency to foreign investors. The investigation found he created an appearance of favoritism and political interference by directing the approval of three projects backed by prominent Democrats, overruling staff recommendations when he ran the immigration services agency under Obama.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell denounced him on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying Mayorkas should be kept from even a lower post for providing special treatment to prominent figures such as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham, and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “Mr. Mayorkas did his best to turn U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services into an unethical favor factory for Democratic Party royalty,” he said.

Mayorkas disputed the IG report’s conclusion and told senators he intervened in decisions, on behalf of both Republicans and Democrats, to correct what he considered wrong actions. “When a leader enters federal service with the authority to fix problems, that leader has the responsibility to fix problems, and that is what I did,” he said.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, another Republican member of the Homeland Security Committee who voted to send the nomination to the Senate floor for a vote, said he discussed the report at length with Mayorkas in private and was satisfied he considered his action an “error” that he would not repeat.

“We just endured a president over four years that I’ll say generously had a relaxed relationship with the truth and I think we want the highest level of integrity in positions of government,” Romney said.

“Protesters are in the building,” came the last words picked up by a microphone carrying a live feed of the Senate before it shut off.

Hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters paraded and hollered through some of the most hallowed spaces in the Capitol — propped at the Senate dais and in the House speaker’s office — all to protest the election and keep President Donald Trump in office.

It was an extraordinary, unprecedented scene.

Trump, the defeated president, had been encouraging protesters as Congress convened for a joint session to certify Joe Biden’s win.

Under the very risers set up for Biden’s inauguration at the U.S. Capitol, the Trump supporters gathered.

Protests are typical at the Capitol. But this one was not.

At least one person was shot and killed, though it’s not clear who pulled the trigger during the chaotic scene. Some in the crowd were shouting “traitors” as officers tried to keep them back.

Inside the House chamber, lawmakers described a harrowing scene.

As they stayed down, they were told to have gas masks at the ready — and take off the lapel pins they wear identifying them as elected representatives.

Police had guns drawn, and furniture barricaded the door.

Glass was shattered. Some prayed while protesters banged on the doors. Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips yelled loudly at Republicans, “This is because of you!”

A chaplain prayed as police guarded the doors to the chamber and lawmakers tried to gather information about what was happening.

Announcements blared: Due to an “external security threat,” no one could enter or exit the Capitol complex, the recording said. Lawmakers tweeted that they were sheltering in place.

Reporters and lawmakers hid under tables as the protesters banged on the door, demanding to be let inside. Rumors of guns spread but it wasn’t clear if any shots were fired beside the one. Tear gas was said to have been dispersed in the Rotunda.

After making sure the hallways were clear, police swiftly escorted people down a series of hallways and tunnels to a cafeteria in one of the House office buildings.

As he walked out of the Capitol, Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes said he “always assumed it could never happen here.”

But others were not so sure.

Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, among those challenging Biden’s win, blamed “both sides” for the chaos at the Capitol.

“What do you think was taking place in this country?” he told reporters. “There’s been a lot of people during the last four years that have just been getting more and more incensed over what is going on around the country, on both sides. It’s just too bad. This is not how we handle things in America.”

The Senate side was not much different.

Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the session, was evacuated from the Senate as protesters and police shouted outside the doors.

Police evacuated the chamber at 2:30 p.m., ushering senators to the first of what would be several undisclosed locations.

Clerks grabbed boxes of electoral college certificates as they left.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, attending the session, was among those ushered to safety.

As soon as they left, protesters roamed the halls shouting, “Where are they?” One got on the Senate dais and yelled, “Trump won that election.”

The State Department Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released Tuesday that Pompeo had the legal authority to declare an emergency and bypass Congress under the Arms Export Control Act.

Republicans joined with Democrats in Congress to oppose the sales, but President Donald Trump, who has made close relations to Saudi Arabia a priority, vetoed resolutions in July 2019 to block the transfers and there were not enough votes to override him.

The inspector general report itself has become the focus of congressional scrutiny after former Inspector General Steve Linick, who was removed from his post in May by Trump, testified to Congress that senior State Department officials had sought to block his inquiry.

Senior State Department officials have said Linick was removed from his watchdog position for leaking another report and not because of his probe of the arms sales, which came amid bipartisan congressional concerns about civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

At least one prominent congressional critic, New York Rep. Eliot Engel, cautioned before the report’s release that it should be treated with skepticism. He noted that it features a classified annex that the public can’t read and that the State Department official in charge of arms sales review has declined to answer questions from a committee investigating Linick’s ouster.

Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, dismissed the emergency certification used to authorize the sales as “phony.”

The report examined the process that Pompeo used to make the emergency certification. Pompeo cited the threat posed by Iran and its support for rebels in Yemen to justify approving arms sales totaling $8.1 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The report concluded that the law grants the secretary the discretion to decide what constitutes an emergency, something three previous administrations have done with respect to arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

It also noted that the State Department did not “fully assess” the risks of civilian casualties from the sale of certain types of weapons, and that it “regularly” approved arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and the UAE that fell below the reporting threshold to Congress.

A senior State Department official, speaking to reporters Monday on condition of anonymity to preview the report, said there was disagreement on the threshold for reporting to Congress and that there was already an effort underway to try to reduce the potential for civilian casualties with American weapons provided to allies.

The official said the “big takeaway” from the report is that Pompeo and the department acted “in accordance with the law” as it sought to aid the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The report notes that the grinding, five-year-old civil war in Yemen has led to what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.