In the "battle of the powers" America may end up unarmed

    Does this mean that America will sharply reduce the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine or, on the contrary, decide to make a leap that is rather reminiscent of convulsions of agony?
    access_time03 May 2022
    print 3 5 2022
     

    Columnist of the American Bloomberg news agency Hal Brands shared with readers his concerns. The professor believes that due to military assistance to Ukraine, the United States may end up without weapons in the event of an alleged conflict with a more serious opponent.

    The "concern" of the United States about the future of Ukraine is so great that some analysts are seriously beginning to worry: after a few months of arms supplies to Ukraine America is likely to significantly deplete its own arsenal. This was stated on the pages of Bloomberg by the author of the book "The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today" Professor Hal Brands. "Western allies face a choice: Send more weapons to Kiev or save their stockpiles for their own defence," he writes.

    The international news agency Reuters reports that according to General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, at the beginning of April 2022, the West has already supplied Kiev with 60,000 anti-tank and 25,000 anti-aircraft guns. The additional package of military assistance to Ukraine, which President Biden approved two weeks ago, includes heavy artillery systems, helicopters, ammunition, armoured personnel carriers and other military equipment worth a total of $800 million. It will also include eighteen 155-millimetre Howitzer artillery systems. This was stated by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

    According to the senior official of the US Department of Defence Ellen Lord, the United States has already sent a quarter of the Stinger MANPADS to Ukraine. "This is a serious threat to our security," says Ellen Lord. According to the official, the Pentagon will not be able to replace Stinger anti-aircraft missiles "in the next couple of years" because some simpler components for the production of these missiles may be difficult to access.

    According to Ellen Lord, it will take America up to five years to restore the stocks of Javelin anti-tank missiles. David Berto, Chief Executive Officer of the Professional Services Council, agreed with her, noting that a third of all missile stocks have been exhausted, and the United States is lagging behind in replenishing its own arsenal. Politicians see the reason for what is happening not only in the unpredictable Ukrainian traffic, but also in the internal problems of the United States — first of all, in inflation, which has reached the highest level since 1981.

    Bloomberg notes that most of the Pentagon's budget, amounting to about $750 billion, is spent on labour, healthcare and other items of expenditure, in addition to the production of ammunition. There is a clear shortage of machine tools, skilled labour and spare production capacity — the US military-industrial complex is going through hard times.

    "Get ready for missile famine” if there is a great-power war," Professor Hal Brands warns the American government. The analyst notes that the Biden administration was not ready for Ukraine to spend the weapons provided to it at such a speed: "President Joe Biden never planned such a war — with a colossal expenditure of ammunition and intensive depletion of key military facilities."

    The publication reports that Kiev is losing a week's supply of weapons and ammunition every day. The agency tried to attribute this fact to the high level of resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but eventually recognised that the bulk of the weapons are destroyed by high-precision missile strikes of Russian troops. All this, Bloomberg concludes, puts NATO countries before a harsh choice: to increase supplies to Ukraine or to limit opportunities. They may need the savings for their own defence.

    It should be noted that by "own defence" and "great-power war" the Western agency means a direct military conflict with Russia or China. The analysts of the National Interest magazine openly warn about this, believing that the United States will not be able to afford any of the four "planned" scenarios of military conflicts.

    "The closet is bare," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat from Connecticut, summing up the "revision" on American arsenals. "This is not Yugoslavia," people reply on Russian social networks. Whether this means that America will sharply reduce the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine or, on the contrary, decide to make a leap that is rather reminiscent of convulsions of agony — we will see in the near future.

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