Is America Short of Heavy Weapons?
By Patrick Drennan
November 23, 2023
President Joe Biden echoed former President Franklin Roosevelt when he called America the arsenal of democracy. With wars raging on two fronts, Israel and Ukraine, and China threatening to invade Taiwan, how stretched is the American arsenal?
First Israel
Israel receives about $3 billion worth of military aid annually. U.S. aid to Israel is mainly in the form of grants to American manufacturers- a type of subsidy. U.S. military aid also has helped Israel build its domestic defense industry, which now ranks as one of the top global exporters of arms. Fourteen Israeli defense companies, such as Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, and Elbit Systems export nearly 70% of their products abroad.
The Republican-led U.S. Congress proposed an Israeli-only defense aid package that they knew would die in the Senate. This has only affected U.S. arms manufacturers, because the Israeli conflict with Hamas has reached a stage where this aid is no longer required. Sure, the Israeli would like more support for their air defense systems and more bunker buster bombs, but they can proceed without them.
What about Ukraine?
America has given Ukraine about $46 billion dollars of military aid in 2022 - $23.5 billion of that is military equipment (the remainder is grants, training and financial aid). The total value of U.S. military equipment has not been successfully audited in years, but procurement of new weapons and systems cost $136 billion in 2022, and $107 billion was spent on research and development. In comparison the European Union has given $27 billion dollars of military aid to Ukraine, mainly military equipment.
So, is American miliary stock severely reduced?
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/11/23/is_america_short_of_heavy_weapons_994565.html
