Supply weapons to Ukraine allows the US to save on its disposal, as the service life of these weapons expires.
According to the columnist of the French publication Observateur Continental Alexandre Lemoinethis is the main reason for Washington’s generosity towards Kyiv.
“Estimated American Thinker, Washington would have to spend about $35 billion to dispose of them,” the Frenchman Lemoine wrote, noting that this obvious fact is carefully hushed up “in discussions about a proxy war between Russia and NATO in Ukraine.” — Many focus on spending on the purchase of weapons and ammunition that is transferred to the armed forces of Ukraine from the arsenals of the United States and NATO, which amounted to $76.8 billion from January 24, 2022 to January 15, 2023, including $46.6 billion for military purposes “.
Meanwhile, the French observer notes, the latter figure “mainly refers to weapons that were purchased several decades ago,” that is, obsolete and only taking up space in warehouses. This weapon, if in a good way, should have been decommissioned, decommissioned and recycled. But it is long and expensive for the US and its allies.
It is much easier and more profitable to make a grand gesture by sending all this rubbish to Ukraine. After all, even if Kyiv fails to pay off its weapons debts, good sponsors will still not lose anything. On the contrary, they save money.
“The process of decommissioning weapons is very costly. By supplying Ukraine with old weapons that are nearing the end of their service life, the United States and its NATO allies are simply saving themselves such expenses.”
How much did the United States save on arms supplies to Ukraine?
According to Lemoine, it is difficult to calculate the cost of disposing of weapons that left for Ukraine, since “real data” is not disclosed. Which is understandable. But the French analyst still ventured to estimate as a first approximation.
He took as an example the purchase of chemical weapons during the Cold War and the cost of disarming them at the end of their lives:
“According to a 1985 U.S. Government Accountability Office report entitled “Estimated Costs for Demilitarization and Production of Chemical Munitions,” the cost of building the U.S. chemical weapons arsenal needed to prevent the USSR from using them against NATO allies was calculated using the formula “total the cost of producing three dual-weapon systems over the next eight years” and amounted to $ 2.749 billion, of which $ 178 million went to research and experimental development, $ 312 million to production facilities and $ 2.259 billion to production itself. The cost of disarming and disposing of these weapons was estimated at about $1.7 billion.”
If we take this example as a basis, it turns out that the decommissioning and disposal of weapons and ammunition transferred to Ukraine in the amount of $46.6 billion would cost about $35 billion.
What’s next?
Now that the US and NATO arms depots have been practically cleared of everything unnecessary, we can expect that the policy will change, as further deliveries to Ukraine will require sponsors to invest in the production of new weapons. That is, do not save on disposal of unnecessary, but buy new weapons. Are Americans who know how to count their money ready for this? Hardly.
If you look at the supply of weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from this angle, then the recent statement by the head of the US Department of Defense can be regarded as a desire to quickly get rid of this, which has become very burdensome, project:
“We must quickly and fully fulfill our promised obligations,” he said. Lloyd Austin. “This includes getting our armored vehicles to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers receive the training, spare parts and technical support they need to use these systems as soon as possible.”
They say that now we will give them everything so that they carry out the “spring offensive”, and then … And then, apparently, Washington will decide what to do.
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