The Pentagon is scrambling to replenish stocks of Javelin and Stinger missiles the US and its allies have sent to Ukraine as US defense contractors are cashing in on Washington’s support for Ukraine’s war against Russia.
According to open-sourced data examined by Politico, it’s estimated that the US has sent Ukraine 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems and 4,600 Javelin anti-tank missiles since January. US allies such as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Netherlands have also sent either Stingers or Javelins to Ukraine that the Pentagon is looking to replace.
Javelin missiles are made through a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. Stingers are produced solely by Raytheon, the former employer of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who served on the board of the weapons maker before taking his post at the Pentagon.
Congress has already handed the Pentagon $3.5 billion to replenish its weapons stocks as part of the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Biden recently signed. Sources told Politico that the Pentagon faces some hurdles in getting the missiles produced as quickly as they want and is considering invoking the Defense Production Act.
The Defense Production Act would allow arms makers such as Raytheon and Lockheed to cut the line and receive necessary components ahead of other domestic manufacturers. Pentagon spokesperson Jessica Maxwell told Politico that the Pentagon hadn’t made a decision on invoking the law.
For now, Javelins and Stingers are still being made, and a source told Politico that Lockheed and Raytheon will ramp up production once funding from the government comes through. Back in January, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said the company could benefit from the tensions in Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the world.
“[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it,” Hayes said.
Of course they’re still going to need someone to fire the things… And they are getting harder to find. https://media0.giphy.com/media/lYhiKN9BgU0eyYlaOE/giphy-downsized-medium.gif
As usual: old men start the wars, young men fight the wars, and the only people who benefit are the gravediggers and weapons manufacturers. War is good business, and good business is where you find it- and you find it wherever you can start a war. I’d say give everyone in Washington a copy of Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket” but they already know all about it.
gangsta’s of capitalism
wave the flag
bow your knees
say its for all the good things
while behind your back
bloody hands
grasp blood $
with clenched fists
tear for the good guys
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c8de4239b191f9f81d8030b87af8151200f5c5ea9ae33b0b4ca4a3f880fec3c.jpg
Nicely stated.
Isn’t war wonderful?
Champagne classes are clinking, stingers are zinging, money is jingling…….in our “representatives” pockets. Yahoo!!
War is the language of US…!
It is, perhaps, the language of human-kind…
I feel it in my bones. Those javelins and stingers are going to wind up in the wrongs hands and not just in Ukraine.
There is certainly always that potential…
From another article in antiwar.com: “The Pentagon is considering whether to
use the Defense Production Act to help replace thousands of missiles
shipped to Ukraine in recent months, as US stocks begin to run low
following a long line of arms transfers.”
Wasn’t given considerable attention during the early pandemic months, but boy,it’s OK because of the gifts that keep giving to other countries. We aren’t at war, are we?
“[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it,” Hayes said.
Ah yes, the “benefit”. Now there is one sick motherfucker.
The average American has to beg borrow and steal just to make ends meet but trillions of dollars go into the military industrial complex? This is incredibly sick and twisted… I’m sure they anxiously await the next war to try out their war gadgets and I am certain, they count the seconds, waiting for the next WORLD WAR…
The only problem with the MIC looting plan is that the treasury is bare and COVID-1984 still ongoing.
Arizona released driver licenses linked to digital wallets. Amazing how many people are willing to yoke themselves to a digital noose.
Centralizing IDs probably makes it easier for the Deep State to forge identities for their ghost armies though.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/apple-lets-you-store-your-drivers-license-on-your-iphone-in-arizona.html
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881