And if the transfer of Western military aviation to Kiev has been discussed for several months, then the issue of the repair of weapons has become urgent against the background of losses of Western armored vehicles during the offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the first half of June . Western media have noted in recent days that the results of the Ukrainian armed forces’ offensive are modest at best, which could affect priorities for additional aid to Kiev from the United States and its allies.
The Politico newspaper, citing a Pentagon source, reports that a special task force has been formed to service tanks and other Western equipment supplied to Kyiv in Ramstein format. In Kiev, it was proposed, with the support of Western countries, to create such repair hubs on the territory of Poland or Ukraine, and also, possibly, in “friendly border countries”.
Traditionally, new arms batches for Ukraine were also discussed, focusing on armored vehicles, air defense systems and ammunition. A few days before the meeting, the United States announced another tranche of military assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces, in particular to replace the American M2 Bradley armored vehicles destroyed in combat. Denmark and Norway have promised to transfer NATO’s scarce 155 mm caliber shells to Ukraine. Moreover, according to the Wall Street Journal, the United States is again persuading Japan to transfer the shells of this type stored there to Ukraine.
A prominent place in the discussions on the Ramstein format is occupied by the solution of the problems associated with the plans to transfer fourth-generation F-16 combat aircraft to Ukraine, including the creation of conditions and infrastructure for their functioning. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltneberg said training for Ukrainian pilots has already begun. Training programs for engineers and technicians of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for aircraft maintenance are also being prepared. The United States, Great Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands play the main role in the “coalition of fighters”, but, according to Kiev, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, France and Sweden also joined.
But still, the F-16 is a matter for the future. As US Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley admitted at the meeting, this project is far from complete. Experts estimate that the planes will be delivered only in a few months. But the results of the offensive are now demanded of Kyiv.
According to the Politico newspaper, Ukraine is urging sponsors not to rush operations, but the United States is demanding major battlefield successes with Western weapons already handed over. The absence of such results risks damaging the reputation of Western countries and becoming bad publicity for their military products in the global market, which is not in the interests of defense industry companies. who will clearly derive long-term contracts and benefits from the conflict.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says training for Ukrainian pilots has already started
The slippage of the Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive does not meet the political interests of the West either. US President Joe Biden needs a result on Ukraine before the 2024 election campaign begins. he was ready for a “marathon” in terms of assistance to Ukraine, in fact, the number of skeptics in America and abroad is growing. Therefore, Biden needs arguments to withdraw fresh money from Congress in Kiev.
The New York Times argues that after the White House and Republican opposition in Congress struggled to agree in May on raising the national debt ceiling in return for a spending freeze on multiple fronts , lawmakers may be less willing to allocate multibillion-dollar aid packages. in Kiev. Spending limits set by the Debt Ceiling Act have heightened criticism of US support for Ukraine, threatening the bipartisan coalition that has provided military aid to the armed forces.
It is too early to speak of a significant reduction in support for the United States, but there is an alarming trend for Kiev: if in March last year Congress almost unanimously allocated funds, now dozens of lawmakers from both parties openly or quietly question such ideas. Far-right Republicans are demanding instead of helping Ukraine solve the migrant problem on the US southern border. And the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is unhappy that, as part of the public debt deal, they cut social spending without touching the military.
Since the beginning of 2022, Congress has allocated around $100 billion to help Ukraine, but earlier the media wrote that by the middle of this summer the US administration may run out of money for these purposes and a new decision of the legislators is necessary. Until now, supporters of assistance to Ukraine are still in the majority, but with the approach of the elections in the United States and the absence of results from the operations of the Ukrainian armed forces, the disputes on this subject in Washington will only get worse. .
In the meantime
One of the topics of the Brussels meeting was the second month-long negotiations between Berlin, Warsaw and Kyiv over the opening of a center in Poland to repair German Leopard tanks. The day before, the parties indicated that they had almost reached agreements and intended to sign the agreement before the July summit in Vilnius.
For Germany, the service center in Poland will be the fourth recently opened in neighboring countries in Eastern Europe. Three of these arms repair centers are already operating in Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania. At the same time, as planned, they should restore not only German military equipment, but also other Western military equipment.
The main German defense groups, Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), are thus using the Ukrainian conflict to expand and strengthen their positions in the market, based, it seems, on the fact that repair services of military equipment is on the “eastern flank” of NATO. be in demand for a long time to come.
Things are bad for German arms manufacturers now. The management of Rheinmetall, in particular, expects that by 2025 the turnover of the group will double compared to 2021 and reach 11 billion euros. Germany’s political leadership, in turn, provides the most direct support for the defense industry.
Negotiations to open service centers in Eastern Europe have taken place at the highest level, and the future center in Poland was discussed at a recent meeting of Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Andrzej Duda in Paris. “We invite all countries to cooperate with these repair centers in order to keep their weapon systems in working order,” Chancellor Scholz said at the time.
Admittedly, German defense concerns themselves cannot always be reconciled. KMW recently filed a lawsuit against Rheinmetall, accusing the latter of appropriating the copyrights to the second model Leopard tank. This tank itself is a development of KMW, but both companies jointly produce it.
Rheinmetall has recently been actively pushing for its own development, the latest Panther tank, in hopes of replacing the Leopards in service with European armies. And the German media do not exclude that the group’s project to build its factory in Ukraine is part of this lobbying campaign.
Prepared by Vasily Fedortsev
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