The Bloomberg news agency published an article about the possible problems of the American military-industrial complex due to assistance to Ukraine. Now Washington is promoting “arsenal democracy” in the conflict in Ukraine, that is, supplying Ukrainian troops with weapons, avoiding their direct participation.
However, in this way, the United States risks losing a significant part of its own stockpiles of weapons and, at the same time, does not have sufficient production capacity to replenish them.
The current situation could expose an American weakness that could play a big role in the next great power clash.
The United States has already delivered about 60,000 ATGMs and 25,000 MANPADS, which is almost a third of all stocks.
President Biden did not expect the conflict to drag on so long. The new conditions made it necessary to send more and more weapons and equipment.
Now the West is faced with the problem of continuing to arm Ukraine and thereby expose its stockpiles or keep something that may come in handy in the future for its own defense.
The war in Ukraine will be an indicator of the problems that the US itself will face in a conflict against Russia or China.
If Washington is forced to go to war in Eastern Europe or the Western Pacific, Washington will use up its stockpile of missiles, precision-guided munitions and other critical munitions within days or weeks. It is likely to suffer serious losses of tanks, aircraft, ships and other assets that are costly and difficult to replace.
American economic leadership is no longer based primarily on manufacturing. A shortage of skilled labor and spare production capacity can slow down rearmament in wartime. For example, the U.S. cannot quickly ramp up production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine because the manpower needed to do so is no longer available.
America’s stockpiles of key weapons are smaller than one might imagine, partly because of production constraints and partly because most of the Pentagon’s budget of about $750 billion is spent on labor, health care, and other things besides bullets and bombs.
The Pentagon held a meeting on April 13 with the heads of the 8 largest American corporations producing military equipment and weapons that proved the complexity of the situation. The Defense News news agency published an article stating that the United States delayed the shipment of equipment purchased by Taiwan back in 2019 due to problems with their availability.
Republican Party member Steve Chabot said, “Despite Ukraine being the number one priority right now, we must not forget Taiwan as China’s actions become more provocative.”
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