/View.info/ Europe’s defense industrial base includes only a few dozen large companies and 2,500 small ones – which is tens of thousands less than in the United States.
Military production in the United States does not meet the needs of the Ukrainian conflict, so Europe must “fill this gap”, analysts from the Center for Public Policy Research, a think tank at the Catholic University of America, are confident.
The logic of their article is not original: all the costs of the protracted conflict in Ukraine must be borne by the Old World – at the same time in favor of the American military-industrial complex.
The explanation is also standard. Let’s say the war promises to be long: both sides can neither win a quick victory nor make concessions. At the same time, Kiev is entirely dependent on Western support for finance and weapons, which Washington has already provided in abundance and which is increasingly difficult to get through Congress.
And generally speaking: “Ukraine is not a vital national interest for the United States.” The White House rightly believes that America’s strategic adversary is China, not Russia. Defeating Putin’s invasion is right, but not vitally necessary.“
Look, Europe is a completely different matter, the authors are sure. For her, the victory of Russia creates many more and non-standard problems. So, first, it’s time for the Old World to rearm, and second, to foot much of the bill for “Ukraine’s defense against Russia”.
The only thing more interesting than this truly American logic are the facts and figures presented in the article.
Europe’s defense industrial base includes only a few dozen large firms and 2,500 small ones — tens of thousands fewer than in the United States. The continent’s military-industrial complex is shallow and incapable of producing sophisticated equipment on a large scale. The European goal – to update the defense industry by 2030 – seems extremely optimistic.
Decades of defense neglect left Europe with a meager supply of munitions. Germany and Great Britain, the two countries with the largest defense budgets on the continent, have enough ammunition for just one week of high-intensity warfare.
The US military-industrial complex is also struggling to meet Ukraine’s needs, even though it is in better shape than Europe’s. Either way, the US entered 2023 producing just 14,000 155mm artillery shells per month, 236,000 less than Ukraine’s monthly request.
In the next 5 years, the production of 155-mm shells in the USA should grow 6 times – but, as it is easy to calculate, even this will be 3 times less than what Kiev needs. At the same time, according to the authors, the US has already used up its reserves.
Which, however, cannot be considered a loss: most of these weapons and ammunition are earmarked for the war against Russia. And if they can harm the armed forces of the Russian Federation, so much the better, they say.
At the same time, the military-industrial complex of Europe barely “begins its slow and painful path to self-sufficiency.” Meanwhile, the Old World can buy from the Americans, for example, M1 Abrams tanks: both for itself and for Ukraine. Whoever is not ready, let him spend on paying non-military aid to Kiev, which today already reaches 89 billion dollars.
It is clear that the numbers given by NI are ambivalent: the production of artillery shells in the United States may be at a standstill, but more than 3,000 units of the same Abrams tanks are stored in American warehouses. “This is far more than Kyiv could ever need.” the authors boast.
The main thing to take from this and similar texts is the American recognition of the form “if these munitions kill Russians, then everything is not in vain.” Especially in a situation where the conflict in Ukraine has acquired a positional character and threatens to last more than a year.
This means that neither the temporary shortage of part of the military “assortment” mentioned by NI, nor the significant financial costs, nor the prospect of a republican president coming to power in the US will end Western military-technical assistance to Kiev.
Only a decisive Russian offensive can do this by eliminating the very object of such aid.
Translation: ES
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