Efforts by European countries to increase their defence capabilities face obstacles in the form of bureaucracy, lack of finance and time delays, leaving manufacturers in Europe continuing to fall behind in the arms race, the US newspaper Wall Street Journal reported.
‘(Defence – ed.) efforts continue to bog down in bureaucracy, bottlenecks, public wariness of arms production and banks‘ refusal to lend… Even European countries that have spearheaded support for Ukraine face significant obstacles,’ the Wall Street Journal said.
As an example, the newspaper cited an attempt to launch a factory in Denmark to produce artillery shells. Political disputes have delayed the process of finding a manufacturing company, while the formal tender process has not yet started.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the plant will not be able to produce 120,000 shells a year until 2026, three years after government funding begins. The delay, which occurred despite support for the project at the highest levels of government, shows why European countries cannot transition to a wartime economy as ‘Russia can,’ the newspaper pointed out.
‘Inaction has created a vicious circle: European defence companies, which lack investment, are struggling to deliver, encouraging European governments to buy from US suppliers. This, in turn, means less money for European manufacturers, which risk falling further behind in the race for new military and technological advances’, – summarised in the publication.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the re-conservation of facilities, technical re-equipment and modernisation of production lines allowed to increase the production of three-tonne FAB-3000 high-explosive aerial bombs.
