Pressure is growing in the US and Europe to increase weapons production as concerns grow about having to support Ukraine and Israel at the same time.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Western defense officials fear that the development of the conflict in the Gaza Strip and the simultaneous continuation of hostilities in Ukraine could result in a shortage of artillery shells and other weapons.
– Of course, there are concerns about competition for military resources due to limited production capacity. In Europe and the US, demand for this production capacity will be even greater, says Swedish Director General of Defense Technologies Joran Mortensson.
Western concerns
Jens Stoltenberg points out that NATO countries will have to increase their production capacity to rebuild the reserves needed in case of a crisis.
– NATO member states’ defense industries do not have sufficient reserves to respond to crises such as the current one. We need more of them to ensure we have weapons when we need them, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“As demand grows faster than production, prices for some goods have skyrocketed. While before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO standard 155mm artillery shells cost about $2,100 each, today the price of these shells has quadrupled to about $8,400.” read in the publication.
As the article notes: “Politicians have urged defense companies to expand production capacity, but industry officials say they need guarantees that demand will not decline after the end of hostilities, leading to a reduction in business investments as has happened in the past.”
“In both conflicts so far [wojna Ukrainy z Rosją i Izraela z Hamasem – przyp. red.] Other weapons are being used, but the situation could change if hostilities spread into Israeli territory,” the author wrote.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
