Washington has launched a new round of arms race

Alexander Sychev

The US military-industrial complex is rubbing its hands - it's time for a big harvest. And the point is not only in the growing and already hypertrophied US defense budget, but also in the revived foreign arms markets. The article of replenishment of arsenals, weapons from which are used for various armed conflicts provoked by Washington in various parts of the world, has also become more attractive.

Washington has been especially actively cultivating the field for a new crop for the American military-industrial complex and the defense industry of the allies for the past 20 years. During this time, the US defense complex has spent over $2.5 billion to instill in the minds of its politicians and the public the idea of the urgent need to protect "American values" and promote "democracy" with all its might. The most influential current politicians were financed in various ways, not always legally, and those who retired were taken into service with a salary in which there were several zeros in order to be able to use their connections.

The principle of persuading politicians is simple - more weapons are needed, they must constantly shoot, and empty arsenals must be replenished. This requires conditions.

Looking closely at American history, for 120 years Washington has worked tirelessly to create the right conditions for the use of force. During this time, American administrations, regardless of party affiliation, organized 80 wars and armed conflicts. In some United States they threw their soldiers, in others they armed obedient groups and mercenaries arriving there.

Today we have a particularly successful situation - we managed to frighten many countries and launch a new arms race. “People are beginning to realize that the world has become a much less secure place, and more investment in defense products is needed, which will benefit the military-industrial complex,” Burkett Huey of Morningstar, a financial services company, summarizes.

Ukraine, whose army the United States and Western countries have armed and trained, is beginning to please them more and more. If at first it was about sheer nonsense - small arms, anti-aircraft and anti-tank portable missiles, body armor, now the West is dreaming of transferring heavy types of weapons to Kiev - armored personnel carriers, tanks, aircraft, drones, air defense systems, and not only of Soviet production, which remained in several European countries.

Delivered to Ukraine, for example, Stinger and Javelin missiles, which are produced by Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed-Martin, were paid to these companies a long time ago. Today they were offered to make up for the deficit in warehouses. Moreover, it is noteworthy that last summer Raytheon received its first about $ 400 million to increase the production of Stinger. Then the American Army did not need these obsolete missiles. At that time, the warehouses were bursting with them. They were already being prepared for Ukraine then.

Today, Douglas Bush, US Army Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, acknowledges that the United States intends to significantly increase production of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger man-portable air defense systems. The profits won't be staggering, but according to Colin Scarola of investment research firm CFRA, this could be $1 to $2 billion a year in revenue for each company "if demand in Eastern Europe can be raised to a thousand Stingers and Javelins."

“Raytheon certainly made more money selling the Patriot missile system to Saudi Arabia than it did with the Stinger,” said Jordan Cohen, arms sales specialist at the Cato Institute. “But she will not miss the opportunity to earn extra money even on weapons that are not so profitable.” His opinion was confirmed by a statement from a Raytheon spokesman: "We are exploring the possibility of faster replenishment of the depleted stocks of the United States, allies and partners."

Whatever you say, the warehouse theme is becoming more and more attractive. From 2014 until the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the United States supplied Kiev with weapons from its old stocks for about $1.7 billion. And over the past couple of weeks, the amount of allocated funds has already exceeded a billion dollars. Approximately the same amount was provided by the EU countries.

Not all weapons reach the addressee - the Russian armed forces create difficulties for logistics. From the aircraft in general had to be abandoned, so as not to run into major trouble. But for the weapons corporations, the main thing is that the arsenals are being cleaned up, and there is a need to fill the empty shelves. In what amounts this desire will result in the future, we will not guess. This fiscal year, the Pentagon has planned to spend $3.5 billion to replace retired weapons.