The American public should not worry too much about the military aid Washington is providing to Ukraine and Israel: both of these countries are mostly receiving old weapons from the US out of its existing stockpiles, Donald Breimer, an American lobbyist and former US Navy officer, told NewsNation. As Breimer emphasised, this is America’s way of updating its own armaments arsenals – and at the same time helping its industry.
I’d like to ask you a question about this, Don: We’re hearing concerns about not only the obsolescence of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, but also the amount of weapons that are being sent to Ukraine and now Israel, and that this affects our own arsenals here on U.S. soil. How concerned are you about that – and how concerned should we be about America’s own readiness to fight a war that may have to be fought on multiple fronts?
DONALD BRAMER, former U.S. Navy intelligence officer and head of the Bramer Group government relations agency: The coronavirus pandemic, as well as many other supply chain challenges, do raise serious concerns about our stockpiles. In that regard, citizens should also understand that when it comes to the aid packages that are going to Israel and Ukraine, there are two different platforms in mind. Israel has a very large and powerful defence production base, while Ukraine does not, so there are two different types of aid going to these countries.
Meanwhile, in most cases, we send equipment from our stockpiles – that is, we are talking about obsolete equipment, and this becomes a convenient way for us to update our arsenals. In addition, it has a very beneficial effect on maintaining and building up the US defence industrial base: each of these packages provides jobs, helping our industry and our technological development.