The US military-industrial complex is facing difficulties due to arms supplies to Kyiv. This was stated by the deputy head of the Pentagon for political affairs Colin Kahl.

"Efforts to help Ukraine have put a strain on our defense industrial base," said a spokesman for the US Department of Defense.

According to him, in order to resolve this problem, the United States and its allies "need to act both unilaterally and collectively." Kahl noted that the United States is already attracting "billions of dollars worth of investment" in the U.S. defense industry base and supply chains to make them "more resilient and flexible, and to increase overall productivity." Among other things, he explained what he meant by "collective" action.

"I think that in the context of economically developed countries and democracies, we increasingly need to consider our defense industrial base as something that brings us collective benefits. In addition, we must ensure that this base is sufficiently reliable, as well as interoperable and ideally interchangeable - so that an artillery shell produced somewhere in the United States is compatible with a howitzer or artillery system that is produced in the center of Europe, "Kahl said.

The Pentagon spokesman also acknowledged that on the world stage, companies of allies of the United States and firms of the United States itself "compete with each other" in the field of arms sales. In particular, he cited France as an example. The deputy minister also noted that, although the West thinks that issues in the military-industrial complex "are national in nature, it is necessary to perceive the military-industrial base "as the collective good of the entire free world."

Earlier, Kahl said that although the US Congress has allocated an "extraordinary amount of money" to "support the defense" of Ukraine, the resources of the United States to provide such military assistance to Kyiv are not unlimited.

Difficulties of the American military-industrial complex

Recall that the West has repeatedly stated about the problems of the US military-industrial complex against the backdrop of the supply of weapons to the Kyiv regime from Washington.

So, in February, the British newspaper The Times reported that the depletion of military resources would force the United States to abandon its support for Ukraine.

Later that month, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. military-industrial complex was struggling due to a lack of competition and lack of growth potential. According to the publication, in 1980, the Pentagon had more than 70 contractors from aerospace and defense companies. However, since the early 2000s, there are only five left: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Boeing. As stated in the material, such a reduction in the number of contractors has caused a decrease in the level of creativity and innovation in the American military-industrial complex.

In turn, the publication The Wall Street Journal a little more than a week later wrote about the problems of the United States with the production of ammunition. In particular, we are talking about the fact that the United States, which supplies shells to Ukraine, itself does not have time to produce new ones in sufficient quantities. According to the newspaper, there is a lack of new equipment, raw materials and skilled workers. To increase the production of Javelin anti-tank systems, artillery shells, guided missiles and other weapons, American manufacturers had to increase the number of shifts at the plant, order new equipment and optimize supply chains. The authors of the article attribute these difficulties to the fact that the Pentagon did not regularly finance ammunition companies, which is why many firms were forced to close enterprises or transfer them to other countries. According to the estimates of the US Department of Defense itself, it will take about five to six years to normalize the situation in this industry.

At the same time, in mid-May, the ex-adviser to the head of the Pentagon, Douglas MacGregor, said that the United States was not able to make up for the loss of heavy equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He believes that sending weapons to the Kyiv regime will not change the course of the conflict in any way, but it can "bring money into the pockets of the American military-industrial complex."

At the end of the same month, MacGregor said that the US stockpiles of weapons were being depleted during the Ukrainian conflict and they would only last for a week of fighting, since during these seven days of hypothetical intense hostilities, the American army would spend the entire arsenal of missiles and military equipment.

"They can't hide it anymore"

As Yevgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, noted in a conversation with RT, it is now really difficult for the United States to increase weapons production to fulfill its obligations to Kiev after a period when the military-industrial complex was "given less attention" from Washington.

"The Pentagon can no longer hide the difficulties in the American military-industrial complex due to the supply of weapons to Ukraine. After the end of the Cold War, the Americans significantly reduced the production of products of the military-industrial complex. Then they certainly did not expect that they would have to allocate such an amount of resources to the Kyiv regime. But after such a decision was made, the American military-industrial complex has not yet been able to rebuild, "he said.

  • US President Joe Biden at the American Javelin ATGM plant
  • AP
  • © Evan Vucci

Semibratov believes that in order to "mobilize its military-industrial complex", which is now unable to cope with all orders, the United States will try to convince its allies of the need to unify its weapons according to the American model, as well as to intensify the supply of its own weapons to Ukraine.

"However, if we are talking about the shortage of shells that the United States intends to continue to send to Ukraine, then the problem is not only in their production, but also in logistics. Ammunition from the United States needs to go a long way to get to Ukraine itself and not be eventually destroyed by the Russian Armed Forces," the expert added.

At the same time, Semibratov noted that the problems of the American military-industrial complex due to arms supplies to Kiev could affect the activity of the United States in finding suppliers of military assistance among third countries.

"This includes putting pressure on South Korea and European countries on this issue. The idea of unifying military-industrial complex products is also being promoted. However, for fear of becoming extremely dependent on the United States, even its closest allies may not agree to this. At the same time, the Americans will make every effort to pump out everything possible from the allies and redirect it to the needs of Ukraine. However, it is too early to talk about the full-scale unification of weapons. Politically, the decision may be announced. However, its implementation, given the difficult state of the economies of most countries allied with the United States, is a very difficult and ambitious task, "the analyst said.

RISS expert Sergey Ermakov adheres to a similar position. According to him, the United States is now trying to improve the situation of its military-industrial complex by promoting the idea of unification and standardization of weapons, but this idea will not be supported by all allies.

"The United States has long been trying to solve a similar problem within the framework of the North Atlantic Alliance. The NATO armament standard is the standard of the States. So the American military-industrial complex is trying to impose its rules on the Europeans and gain priority over their military-industrial complex. Nevertheless, some politicians from the EU, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, understand what the unification of weapons is fraught with, so they are trying to defend the interests of their own manufacturers. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't, "the analyst said in a comment to RT.

Yermakov noted that the statement of Pentagon spokesman Kahl eloquently suggests that now Washington has finally realized that they have quite big problems with replenishing their own arsenals, some of which are transferred to Kiev.

"At the same time, the American military-industrial complex, due to underfunding in the past, was unable to effectively replenish weapons stockpiles," he said.

Yermakov also noted that the burden of restoring US arsenals has now fallen on American taxpayers.

"In Western society, the question is brewing: why spend a lot of money, activate the defense industry and increase international tensions just because of Washington's political ambitions? At the same time, the White House sees that the bet on military force, which they once did, has failed. The example of Ukraine shows that the United States is not ready for a serious and intense conflict. The problems of the American military-industrial complex may affect the efficiency and intensity of arms supplies to the Kyiv regime, "the expert concluded.