The United States has long boasted of being the world's "arsenal of democracy." Since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has authorized the supply of military equipment to Ukraine from the inventory of the Department of Defense 43 times, with military aid as high as $46.6 billion.
But since the beginning of this year, Ukraine's ** difficulties have become increasingly prominent, and the US military industry has been pointed out to be unprepared to deal with the crisis.
Aid to Ukraine has already consumed a large number of US ammunition stocks, and once the United States has a head-on conflict with Russia or China, at the current level, the US ** arsenal will be exhausted in a few days or even hours, and there will be a fatal problem of insufficient ammunition.
Europe is not much better. After the Cold War, Europe shifted its focus to economic construction and social welfare, streamlining armaments to the greatest extent and reducing defense spending.
Even though the war between Russia and Ukraine has pushed Europe to strengthen its armaments, the lack of investment in the previous decades has led to a weak military foundation in Europe.
The most outrageous is Germany, due to the aid to Ukraine, which once led to the bottoming out of armament stocks, the national defense ammunition reserves at the end of 2022 are even only enough for 2 days.
After the "Second World War", the WestIn order to maximize profits, military manufacturers outsource a large number of non-core businesses overseas, and focus on high-profit, high-value goods, resulting in many essential parts and materials today highly dependent on imports.
It is easy to transfer military manufacturing out, but it is difficult to rebuild. The first-class production in Western countries is mainly contracted system, and the Ministry of Defense signs contracts with enterprises to carry out on-demand production.
Due to the fact that the company takes turns to govern, the orders of enterprises are not guaranteed for a long time, and the independent research and development cycle of high-tech products is long, and the construction of factories and assembly lines costs a huge amount of money, so enterprises are unwilling to take risks and expand production.
Military manufacturing also faces the problem of insufficient recruitment. With the rise of the post-Cold War financial and technology services, workers in the manufacturing industry have been attracted by high salaries and have left their jobs in large numbers.
In addition to vocational training, it is necessary to receive 1 to 2 years of apprenticeship training, which can be taught by experienced ** in order to master the necessary skills.
Therefore, even if Western military factories begin to increase production and expand, they still face many bottlenecks. Moreover, rising defense spending means crowding out other spending, and according to the political design of the West, other interest groups will inevitably take advantage of the wind and use all kinds of legal means to obstruct the progress of this process.
Most importantly, there are inherent problems with the model of subcontracting military development to private companies.
The way private companies operate is such that they have little interest in production with thin profit margins, and are willing to bet only on high-tech products with high profits, but the necessary military materials are unlikely to be profitable.
Jumping out of the field of military industry, the entire pattern of the Russia-Ukraine war has undergone major changes.
Biden's forced aid bill to Ukraine in Congress failed, and it can only give Zelensky "spiritual comfort";Germany has ruthlessly rejected even its own budget by the courts, let alone increased aid to Ukraine.
On the other side, Emperor Pu not only visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to show his presence, but also fought with Iran in Moscow, as if he had freed his hands, swept away the embarrassment of the Wagner mutiny, and earned enough eyeballs.
Under the general trend of strength and weakness, I am afraid that the real victory or defeat will soon be known.
100 help plan
With the current ** reserves of Ukraine, it will last until February next year at most. The top leaders of the Ukrainian military understand the details of our enemies and have been intensively planning negotiationsAnd Zelensky, who is worried about being liquidated, still asks for "pathos" to fight to the last lesson.
Change is just around the corner.