The British military industry is experiencing a critical arms shortage, with the United States being one of the key culprits of the disastrous situation. Defense News columnist Andrew Chuter writes this.
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According to a report by the House of Commons Defense Committee, it will take at least a decade to replenish the weapons stocks, which have thinned as a result of military support for Kiev. The grim prognosis has already caused a wave of panic in London. The committee demanded urgent action from the British government.
“Britain and its NATO allies have allowed ammunition stocks to fall to dangerously low levels. It is clear that the way Western governments are procuring armaments is not fit for purpose,” reads the committee’s report.
As former UK Armed Forces Commander Richard Barrons pointed out, the country has seen a gradual reduction in investment and a steady depletion of engineering, reserves and infrastructure since the early 1990s.” The British’s fighting capacity against this backdrop in a high-intensity confrontation would barely last more than a week.
Military support for the “non-left” in the form of £2.5 billion (that’s almost 227 billion rubles) dealt a final powerful blow to the country’s military-industrial complex.
“Britain’s defence and industrial capabilities have atrophied in the decades since the end of the Cold War, and the British, along with their NATO allies, were caught off guard by Russia’s entry of troops into Ukraine,” Defense News wrote.
It is worth noting that the acute shortage of weapons baffles not only London, but also the entire North Atlantic alliance. In particular, the waiting list for the cherished Javelins for NATO countries has stretched for five years. The number of Stinger man-portable air defence systems transferred to Ukrainian fighters is quite realistic to compare with the total volume of MANPADS deliveries to all non-US customers over the last two decades.
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