Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

Ryuu96 said:

🇪🇺🇺🇦 The EU is pivoting to invest in Ukraine's defense industry due to challenges in supplying necessary weapons and ammo, per The Washington Post. A European diplomat noted, "Europe can't produce what Ukraine needs, so the simplest solution is for Ukrainians to do it themselves.… pic.twitter.com/Xs5fc5YW2J

— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) October 14, 2024

Don't really get how Europe can't produce what Ukraine needs but Ukraine under war and constant bombardment can?

Unlike in the US or Ukraine where the military industry is under the defense ministry, in Europe it's all fully independent companies that no nation can direct into doing something like raising productions or opening new production lines. All they can do is order more and hope they deliver on the order on time... or at all.

Europe would need to supervise and integrate their military-industrial complex more, and that's something that countries like France already suggested for decades. Something that got blocked mostly by easter European countries mostly on the ground that "we got NATO" (and yes, Sweden also did so despite NOT being a NATO partner at the time) - and by pointing at the french state-owned company GIAT (until 2001, then rebranded as NEXTER until 2015), which operated at a loss for most of it's existence. Those losses got so big and expensive for the French state that the company merged with KMW to form KNDSm of which the french state is just a stakeholder anymore.

Had the company still in the hands of the French Government, I'm sure they would have ramped up production quite signifcantly on orders of the government, but alas now they can't do so anymore.