The head of NATO’s Military Committee is urging the alliance to increase arms production, warning the “bottom of the barrel” of NATO’s stockpiles is now visible due to the massive amounts of weapons and ammunition that have been shipped to Ukraine.
Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer made the comments on the first day of the Warsaw Security Forum. He said NATO military budgets increased before the Russian invasion but that the Western arms industry did not increase production capacity.
“And that has led to higher prices already before the war. And that actually has (been) exacerbated by the fact that we now give away weapon systems to Ukraine, which is great, and ammunition, but not from full warehouses,” Bauer said, according to TVP World.
“We started to give away from half-full or lower warehouses in Europe and therefore the bottom of the barrel is now visible. And we need the industry to ramp up production at a much higher tempo and we need large volumes,” he added.
Earlier this year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was using artillery shells at a faster rate than the entire alliance could produce, raising questions about the sustainability of the proxy war. The US and its allies are taking steps to ramp up production, but results are expected to be seen anytime soon.
Bauer’s comments came after a British military source told The Telegraph that the UK was out of weapons to give to Ukraine. “We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that,” the source said.
Typo:
“The US and its allies are taking steps to ramp up production, but results are [NOT] expected to be seen anytime soon.”
They definitely will not be. And I think resistance to ever-increasing “defense” spending may continue to grow.
They’ve really screwed this one up.
They’ve sent pre-existing stockpiles. Having to spend money is going to be a different reality entirely. The military contractors don’t have the extensive raid the Treasury scheme set up as in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the resistance will be ignored. At least here.
Some of the resistance is by renegade Republicans in Congress. They can’t be ignored, especially in the House.
But they are for increased defense spending. And most (probably all) of them were for Ukrainian aid before they were against Ukrainian aid. Jordan, Greene and Gaetz included.
Sure, but we’re talking about resistance to a specific defense spending issue — more funding for the proxy war — and we’re talking about now (and in the immediate future) not then.
Ok, I should have known you were talking specifically about Ukraine, my bad on that. But on them being for aid before they were against aid, what changed? Presidents, perhaps? I’m not sure when their opinions were taken on Ukraine, but something other than them becoming enlightened was responsible for them changing their mind. But that’s just an opinion. I do hope their resistance works, nonetheless.
“. . . something other than them becoming enlightened was responsible for them changing their mind. But that’s just an opinion.”
I’m guessing you’re right. Most partisan politicians are opportunists and . . . not much more.
None of them are all that trustworthy, IMV. Even two of the most visible reformationist “firebrands”, MTG and Lauren Boebert, actively pushed for McCarthy as Speaker against others’ of the same stripe wishes.
…And there no other barrels…! US aid is being cut soon and the Zelboy has no other choice but to concede…!
The whole situation reeks of dishonesty and corruption. European NATO alone (not counting the US, Canada, or Turkey) had a combined defense budget some 5 times bigger than Russia’s in 2021. Yet all of them, put together, would have a hard time matching the 80,000 men and 2000 tanks (approximately 6 divisions) Russia deployed in the initial operation. Where does all the money go????
The collection of junk they have donated (obsolescent tanks, other armored vehicles that have been removed from front line service, ex-Afghan War MRAPS that they can’t otherwise give away, etc) are an embarrassment given the amount of money they allocate for their militaries. And the USA is not much better; we just have a bigger accumulation of old junk (MRAPS left over from Afghanistan, obsolete M113s, Strykers, old versions of M1 tanks, excess Bradleys) to give away.
So; either everyone is lying (a good possibility) OR their defense procurement and military organizations are the most corrupt and dishonest sinkholes of public funds that the world has ever seen.
I have no use for Zelensky but I sympathize with him; after all the promises, this is the crap his people are supposed to fight with, and now the same people are claiming “that’s all we got”???
What if they gave a war and there weren’t any weapons to fight it?
Cha Ching! 💰💰💰💰💰💰
and there it is
. . .from the files, Jul 11, 2018
re: “The head of NATO’s Military Committee is urging the alliance to increase arms production, warning the “bottom of the barrel” of NATO’s stockpiles is now visible due to the massive amounts of weapons and ammunition that have been shipped to Ukraine. Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer made the comments . . .”
The Dutch should get it together.
Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum. . . .“I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said. . .here
Great job you #%# Idiots. Like I said from day 1, you are wasting all the weapons you bought with my tax money and now leaving us vulnerable because of the idiotic plan to over throw the pro Russian government in Ukraine and replace them with a NATO plant. Obama/Biden Administrations fingerprints are ALL over this, and yet all we hear is UNPROVOKED WAR from every news channel in the USA. It WAS PROVOKED by you morons.
Did Putin respond like a savage tyrant with no humanity gene? Absolutely. But you reaped what you have sewn. And your not fooling me. I blame YOU.
“”… and now leaving us vulnerable…””
we the people might be vulnerable, but odds are that uncle sam’s military is not even close to being vulnerable
Where, oh where, did those hundreds of billions go?
They went to money-first people who live in mansions, trophy homes and $400 hotel rooms.
” War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. “–Smedley Butler . . .that’s Smed, up to the left.
Let’s look on the bright side . . .”US Army Shrinks to Smallest Size Since WW2 as It Struggles to Find Recruits.” . .proxie wars have gone the way of regime change wars, and the young will save us from all-out war.
i don’t think the size of the army has any effect on the war plans of the US.