With the introduction of a new round of aid to Ukraine by the United States of nearly $40 billion, the war between Russia and Ukraine is getting stronger and stronger.
At the same time, U.S. military aid to Ukraine has also been "upgraded" from defensive weapons such as "Stinger" anti-aircraft missiles and "Javelin" anti-tank missiles to offensive weapons such as "spring knife" suicide drones and M777 heavy howitzers.
But now it seems that these heavy weapons cannot "adapt to the needs of the new battlefield".
According to the US media, the Biden administration is planning to provide Ukraine with a new huge amount of money that has just arrived.
Star-Spangled Banner: The Ukrainian side conveyed specific military assistance requests to the US congressmen who recently visited Ukraine, hoping that the US side will provide more advanced equipment in addition to existing artillery, individual missiles and other weapons.
Which "more advanced equipment" may enter Ukraine
The first is a longer-range, more powerful anti-ship weapon.
According to U.S. government and congressional sources, the White House is actively considering supplying Ukraine with "Harpoon" anti-ship missiles made by the Us boeing company, or the "Naval Strike Missile" (NSM) jointly produced by the US Raytheon Company and the Norwegian defense enterprise to help the Ukrainian army "break the Russian maritime blockade".
Screenshot of the Reuters report
A Ukrainian official recently said on social media that "the United States is formulating a plan to destroy the Russian Black Sea Fleet."
Although U.S. Defense Department spokesman Kirby later called the news "untrue" at a press conference, he did not deny the claim that the United States was considering shipping anti-ship missiles to Ukraine.
Screenshot of the U.S. News & World Report website report (subtitled Kirby)
Ukraine also wants the United States to provide long-range multiple rocket launcher systems, such as the M270 high-precision rocket launcher with a range of more than 70 kilometers produced by Lockheed Martin.
This range is several times that of most of the Ukrainian artillery, and is said to be able to "reach The territory of Russia".
Screenshot of the Reuters report
In addition, according to US media, the Ukrainian government also met with representatives of the Us General Atomic Aviation Systems Company to discuss the acquisition of the MQ-9 "Grim Reaper" attack drone produced by the company.
MQ-9 "Grim Reaper" attack drone (from Forbes magazine)
Previously, "Death" was controversial for causing a large number of civilian deaths and injuries in "drone counter-terrorism operations" in Afghanistan and other places.
Although the risk of escalating the conflict by providing "death" to Ukraine is high, and the United States has implemented a strict export policy to prevent the global proliferation of such dangerous weapons, Universal Atom has continued to lobby Washington to approve the export of "death" to Ukraine.
Forbes magazine website: Talks between Ukraine and U.S. defense contractors would not have happened without the approval of the Biden administration.
"Now it's time for the government to beg them to increase production"
The United States is increasingly losing the bottom line of ukrainian military aid, and of course there is a huge push behind it. This driving force is a military-industrial complex formed by the US arms dealers and the government, Congress and other parties.
Among them, the US military industry, led by five giants such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, is undoubtedly the chief trader.
In recent months, when the crisis in Ukraine has escalated, most listed companies have plummeted, while military stocks have bucked the trend. As the eldest of the big five military industries, The stock price of Loma has soared by about 25%.
Screenshot of the website of financial analysis firm TipRanks
Not long ago, Biden just visited the Loma company's "Javelin" missile production plant to express "thanks" and "encouragement." Since then, the production of The Javelin missiles in Loma has accelerated further.
In fact, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict provoked by the United States gradually spiraled out of control, Loma and other arms dealers no longer had to spend money to lobby for military contracts, but the Biden administration was "begging" them to increase their weapons production to make up for the rapid consumption of battlefield supplies and domestic stocks.
A U.S. "Open Secret" website revealed that as Ukraine's demand for weapons has risen, the Pentagon's top defense contractors have generally reduced their lobbying activities and just waited for orders to come to them.
"The current environment will not only help military-industrial companies persuade Congress to exempt them from the corporate tax, but will also allow them to sell more weapons with less oversight and transparency," the article said. In other words, "the way the Pentagon does business with them is more beneficial to them."
Screenshot of a report on the U.S. "Open Secret" website
"Every taxpayer involuntarily becomes a shareholder in arms dealers"
William, director of the Arms and Security Program at the Center for International Policy and senior adviser to several think tanks, has long made incisive comments about the role of military giants such as Loma: Loma has become a shadow government in the United States, it is not the head of the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems to be able to control the U.S. government.
CBS: pointed out that for all aspects of American society, Loma's mercenary military enterprise is pervasive and omnipotent, and its power extends beyond any government agency.
In fact, lomas not only became the master of the US government in terms of national policy orientation, but also could be called the teachers of politicians in terms of "thick black".
At a shareholders' meeting held just last month, Lowmar shareholders launched a proposal arguing that the weapons produced and sold in Lowmar caused civilian casualties and humanitarian disasters in many parts of the world, and that the company's failure to meet its human rights due diligence responsibilities could pose "legal, financial and reputational risks" to Lowa shareholders.
But Loma argued that the company's board of directors has always "linked the company's mission to U.S. national security" and that the shareholder's proposal "attacks U.S. foreign policy, not the company itself."
The SEC's official website discloses the Loma shareholder proposal
In an article in the American political magazine Jacobin, Loma executives always stress that "additional regulation will harm shareholders", but what they really want is that shareholders allow them to continue to "ignore the adverse consequences of the products they produce and sell in the real world".
Jacobin magazine article "Loma don't want you to know what they're doing"
The U.S. Institute for Policy Research's National Priorities survey found that the average U.S. taxpayer contributed about $2,000 in military spending last year, of which about $900 went to five major military companies. In 2020, Loma, the Pentagon's largest arms contractor, reportedly took $75 billion from taxpayers. This means that "every taxpayer involuntarily becomes a shareholder in arms dealers".
Screenshot of the U.S. Institute for Policy Research website
Source: Global News+