Most NATO members have run out of weapons for Ukraine - NYT

RT
Sun, 27 Nov 2022 08:15 UTC

Arms transfers to Ukraine have left Western weapon stockpiles strained, making it increasingly difficult for NATO militaries to honor politicians' pledges to supply Kiev, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

"Smaller countries have exhausted their potential," and according to one NATO official, at least 20 of the bloc's 30 members are "pretty tapped out," the newspaper wrote. Only "larger allies," including France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, have enough stockpiles to continue or potentially increase their weapon shipments to Ukraine.

Since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in late February, the US and its Western allies have been providing Kiev with billions of dollars in security assistance, to the tune of nearly $40 billion, now comparable to the entire annual defense budget of France. Moscow has repeatedly warned that the weapon shipments will only prolong the conflict and increase the risk of a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.

As Ukraine continues to call for more weapons, EU stockpiles are running low, with Germany already "reaching its limit" as of early September. Meanwhile, Lithuania, which does not have any more weapons to donate, has urged the allies to give Ukraine "everything we have."

US President Joe Biden has vowed to keep the arms pipeline open for "as long as it takes," but even American military stockpiles have taken a toll after repeated shipments to Kiev. As early as March, just weeks after the conflict in Ukraine kicked off, the US Defense Department was already scrambling to replenish thousands of shoulder-fired missiles supplied to Kiev. By August, US stockpiles of 155mm artillery ammunition were "uncomfortably low," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Pentagon's latest fact sheet detailed more than $19 billion in direct military aid approved since February, including over 46,000 anti-armor systems, nearly 200 Howitzers, 38 long-range High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and a litany of other heavy weapons, vehicles and ammunition - as well as over 920,000 of 155mm artillery rounds.

The US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) previously pointed out that the American military is "not structured to fight or support an extended conflict," while the defense industry is "sized for peacetime production rates," and expanding capabilities would take years.

NATO is heavily invested in Ukraine, with the alliance's members also providing training and intelligence capability. Despite this "unprecedented support," the military bloc's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has repeatedly claimed that "NATO is not a party to the conflict."

Moscow sees things differently. Multiple top officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have accused NATO of waging war against Russia "by proxy," while Putin has described Russia as fighting "the entire Western military machine."

Comment: When demand exceeds supply:

Ukraine has sought long-range surface-to-surface missiles known as ATACMS from Washington. However, the White House has rebuffed the request out of concerns the munitions could be used to hit Russian territory.

Part of the cause of the dwindling arms supply is the massive demand for artillery. Currently, Ukrainian forces are firing thousands of rounds daily, but the US can only produce 15,000 rounds per month. Camille Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told NYT, "[a] day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan."

The increased demand for weapons has been a significant boon for the Western arms industry. Sebastian Chwalek, CEO of Poland's PGZ, an entity that owns multiple arms manufacturers said:
"Taking into account the realities of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the visible attitude of many countries aimed at increased spending in the field of defense budgets, there is a real chance to enter new markets and increase export revenues in the coming years."
US arms makers are also profiting off the war. In May, during a visit to a Lockheed Martin plant, President Joe Biden said Washington would increase the number of weapons the US would produce. The President said his plan to ramp up production would not come cheap.

The American arms profiteering has upset some Europeans. According to POLITICO, one European official said:
"the fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the US because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons."
Mark F. Cancian, a former White House weapons strategist and current senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed it would take a multi-year effort to ramp up the production of key weapons.
"If you want to increase the production capability of 155mm shells. It's going to be probably four to five years before you start seeing them come out the other end."

Reader Comments

oldschoolrider · 2022-11-28T20:59:56Z

get corrupt pfizer nazi kvnts to foot the bill

they raked in over 100 billion in fake killer clot shots..

so.. who needs weapons right, fkn idiots..