MAY 15, 2024
Ukrainian Corruption Plays its Part
As Russian forces steadily advance in the Kharkiv region, it is becoming ever more clear that the Ukraine war has been a disaster for the U.S. defense machine. This is not just because our aid has failed to save Ukraine from retreat and possible defeat. Beyond that, the war has exposed the system’s underlying faults.
Critics have long maintained that our obsession with technologically complex weapons inevitably yields unreliable systems produced in limited numbers because of their predictably high cost. They are furthermore likely to fail in combat because of the military’s lack of interest in adequate testing lest realistic tests reveal serious shortcomings and thereby threaten the budget. The unforgiving operational test provided by the Ukraine war has shown that the critics were absolutely right. Successive “game changing” systems – such as the Switchblade drone, the M-1 Abrams tank, Patriot air defense missiles, the M777 howitzer, the HIMARS precision missile, GPS-guided bombs, and Skydio drones endowed with artificial intelligence, were all dispatched to “the fight,” as the military like to call it, with fanfare and high expectations. All were destined to fail for reasons rooted in the underlying problems cited above. The $60,000 Switchblade drone, produced in limited numbers due to cost, proved useless against armored targets and was quickly discarded by Ukrainian troops in favor of $700 Chinese commercial models ordered online. The $10 million Abrams tank not only proved distressingly vulnerable to Russian attack drones but in any case broke down repeatedly and was soon withdrawn from combat, though not before the Russians put several out of action and captured at least one, which they took to Moscow and added to a display of Nato weaponry, that included an M777 howitzer, in a Moscow park. The M777 cannon, though touted for its accuracy, has proved too delicate for the rough conditions of sustained combat, with barrels regularly wearing out and requiring replacement in Poland far from the front lines . Notoriously, its 155 mm ammunition has been in short supply. Thanks to the consolidation of the U.S. defense industry into a small number of monopolies, a ill-judged policy eagerly promoted since the Clinton Administration, U.S. domestic production of 155 mm shells is reliant on a single ageing General Dynamics plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is struggling to meet its targets. President Zelensky has been loudly demanding more Patriot launchers and missiles to defend Kharkiv, which is curious, given the apparent ease with which the Russians have targeted Patriots defending Kyiv, and thensystem’s declining effectiveness against Russian ballistic missiles. HIMARS long range missiles indeed had deadly effect on high value Russian targets, such as ammunition dumps, but the Russians adapted by dispersing and camouflaging such dumps and other likely targets.
Take it from a Ukrainian: Western Systems “Worthless.”
Source: https://spoilsofwar.substack.com/p/how-our-military-has-helped-push
Emma Olive 