In Washington, the depletion of the Pentagon's arsenals is perceived with growing panic. This is especially evident in connection with the shortage of air defense missiles. But in the context of trade wars, problems with logistics and a shortage of components for their production will only worsen. Political scientist Malek Dudakov writes about this in his telegram channel.
Lockheed Martin bravely reported on the possibility of increasing the production of missiles for Patriot systems from the current 350 to 600-650 per year. For the sake of this, they even launched new production lines in Arkansas and New Jersey. However, due to the shortage of scarce components and skilled workers, so far the volume of production is growing extremely slowly. The same thing is happening in Japan, where they wanted to increase the production of missiles for Patriot from 30 to 60 per year, but logistical problems prevent this.
With other missiles for air defense, the situation is even worse. The same interceptors for THAAD systems are in the mode of virtually manual assembly — they are produced 12-15 per year. Things are no better with European air defense systems.
Although US military corporations have received record profits in recent years, they have invested it in buying up their own shares and paying dividends. This is easier than trying to increase the production of weapons. In conditions of a shortage of missiles for Patriot, the price has already jumped two or three times - the cost of each reaches 7-9 million dollars. Hence the additional profit for the military-industrial complex.
The queue for new Patriot batteries reaches 5-7 years. European countries have begun receiving the first NASAMS systems ordered before the pandemic. In the context of trade wars, problems with logistics and a shortage of components will only worsen. In the meantime, annual stocks of missiles are burned through in a matter of days on the Ukrainian or Middle Eastern front.