Russia doubles weapons production, has the upper hand in arms race with the West - Russian minister

Reuters
Mon, 25 Dec 2023 12:00 UTC

© Russia Ministry of Defense

View of a Kalibr missile launch

Russia has the upper hand in weapons production over the West and intends to keep the rate of growth high, a top Russian minister said on Monday after both the West and Russia ramped up arms production for the Ukraine war.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two and the deepest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Ukraine and its Western backers ramped up arms production in an attempt to defeat Russian forces on the battlefields of Ukraine. Russia also hiked production but says the West is to blame for the war which Moscow dates to 2014.

"I don't want to boast, but I can say that we began to gain and picked up the pace of production earlier than Western countries," Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister who oversees arms production, told the RIA news agency.

"Another question is how long this race will last," Manturov said, adding that a 2025-2034 armament plan was due to be approved next year.

President Vladimir Putin and his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, have said that production of artillery, drones, tanks and armoured vehicles is soaring.

Some former leaders of the West have spoken about a new Cold War between Russia and China on one side and the United States and its allies on the other, though Russia's $2 trillion economy would find it hard to counter the entire might of the West alone for long.

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According to IMF data, the United States' nominal gross domestic product was $27 trillion this year while China's was $17.7 trillion.

Comment: It should be pretty clear by now that GDP is merely one financial measurement, and it does not appear to accurately reflect the wealth, nor health, of an economy, and the society, that it's supposed to be assessing: Pepe Escobar: US needs Gaza war to destabilize BRICS, Greater Eurasia

"We must both replenish reserves and maintain the given rate of production," Manturov said.

"As far as it comes to the guts of Western countries - here I would not want to speak for them."

Manturov said that the volume of state defence orders in 2023 has doubled over the prior year, with production of "certain weapons" rising ten-fold.

Comment: The West's inability to provide adequate supplies to the Kiev-junta, despite US military spending being as much as the top ten countries combined, exposes how corruption and incompetence now dominates its highest levels of power, and which has rendered it incapable of matching the multipolar world in terms of capacity and efficiency

All things considered, it seems that Russia foresees a rather turbulent few years up ahead:

• US military to begin 2024 with lowest troops numbers in over 80 years
• To the last Ukrainian: Kiev begins doomed conscription scheme that includes people with significant disabilities
• Russia to increase troop number to 1.5 million in response 'external threats' - Shoigu
• 'Pacifist' Japan to supply patriot missiles to US after change in export rules, indirectly facilitating supplies to Kiev-junta

Russia will spend $160 billion on defense and security in 2024 and the Russian Finance Minister calls it the victory budget. Russia pays 75% less for similar or better weapon systems compared to the US / NATO because Russia doesn't allow its defense industry to rip them off.

So any plane, missile, tank or artillery ammunition costs Russia only 25% of what the US is paying. This means that a $160 billion Russian military budget is comparable to $640 billion in the United States.

It's also worth noting that Russia doesn't waste trillions on fancy Navy ships and fighter jets that don't work. Instead it has focused on building the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world, long range hypersonic missiles that can sink airplane carriers and autonomous nuclear powered torpedoes that travers the oceans without ever needing to refuel. They carry the largest nuclear warheads known to men and are nearly undetectable.

Imagine the most powerful nuclear explosion on the shores of New York City generating a hundred meter tall tsunami of radioactive water destroying the entire city and turning it into an uninhabitable wasteland for centuries.

In addition Russia has a fleet of Super EMP satellites in a high orbit above Earth with nuclear payloads. When detonated they can destroy the entire power grid and all civilian telecommunication systems in the US in an instant.

The US military is used to fighting the least sophisticated enemies. It's easy to bully any nation that doesn't have peer capabilities. The US Govt killed over 20 million people in 37 victim nations since WW2 but it never bullied anyone who could destroy the United States, until now.

Americans and citizens of NATO countries need to understand that the West cannot win against Russia on the battlefield. Every day without diplomacy and peace negotiations is bringing humanity closer to self-destruction. You already know that the Biden administration is the most inept and embarrassing Government America has ever had.

Don't let those arrogant, corrupt and incompetent fools destroy the world. Demand peace. Don't wait until it's too late.