Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Who is Benefitting From Washington's Undeclared War With Ukraine?

Here is the latest announcement from the United States Department of Defense regarding materiel and service support for Ukraine:

 


This package includes the following:

 

Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;


Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);


155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;


120mm mortar rounds;


120mm and 105mm tank ammunition; 


25mm ammunition;


Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;


Approximately 400 grenade launchers and 200,000 rounds of ammunition;


11 tactical vehicles to recover equipment;


61 heavy fuel tankers;


10 trucks and 10 trailers to transport heavy equipment;


Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair;


Spare parts and other field equipment.


In contrast to the Presidential Drawdown which delivers equipment that is removed from current Department of Defense stockpiles, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative or USAI is an authority under which the United States procures military equipment from the defense industry.  As such, the announcement of this particular USAI package represents the first stage of a contracting process to supply materiel to Ukraine's Armed Forces.  This most recently announced package which will use $2.1 billion in USAI funds includes the following:

 

Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);


Nine counter-Unmanned Aerial System 30mm gun trucks;


10 mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems;


Three air surveillance radars;


30mm and 23mm anti-aircraft ammunition;


130mm and 122mm artillery rounds;


122mm GRAD rockets;


Rocket launchers and ammunition;


120mm and 81mm mortar systems;


120mm tank ammunition;


Javelin anti-armor systems;


Anti-armor rockets;


Precision aerial munitions;


Approximately 3,600 small arms and more than 23,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition;


Seven tactical vehicles to recover equipment;


Eight heavy fuel tankers and 105 fuel trailers;


Armored bridging systems;


Four logistics support vehicles;


Trucks and ten trailers to transport heavy equipment;


Secure communications equipment;


SATCOM terminals and services;


Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.


As you can see from this map from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the United States leads the pack of nations that have supported Ukraine with total commitments of $47.07 billion in military aid and total aid (including humanitarian and financial) of $77.71 billion which puts them in tenth place when measured in terms of percent of GDP:

 

 

In it's latest iteration dated March 20, 2023, the Department of Defense has provided the following security assistance to Ukraine:

 





Now, you might ask yourself who is this really benefitting?  Here's an idea of some of the beneficiaries of Washington's undeclared war with Russia:

 

1.) Lockheed Martin:

 


2.) Raytheon:

 


 

3.) General Dynamics:

 


As we all know from history, every war has its winners and losers.  In this war, the United States defense contractors are, at this point in time, the only winners with the upper floor corner office dwellers experiencing this thanks to the unfettered generosity of American taxpayers:

  

1.) Lockheed Martin:

 

 

2.) Raytheon:

 


3.) General Dynamics:


 

Certainly, all shareholders have benefitted to some extent from Washington's undeclared war with Russia, however as George Orwell stated in his novel Animal Farm, "All animals are equal, but some are just more equal than others."  And, let's not forget that the materiel drawn down from the Department of Defense stockpiles will have to be replaced, meaning that this war could go on far longer than the actual conflict as far as American taxpayers are concerned.


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