“Europe’s desire for rearmament runs into bureaucratic red tape, lack of money and popular resistance.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Europe’s desire for rearmament runs into bureaucratic red tape, lack of money and popular resistance.
Europe unable to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to ramp up arms production quickly / twitter.com/DeptofDefenseEurope needs to rearm quickly, but obstacles ranging from bureaucracy to a lack of money are preventing defense contractors from expanding. As The Wall Street Journal writes, in recent months the need to arm Ukraine and Europe itself has become even more urgent, as European leaders fear that a possible victory of Donald Trump may affect the commitment of the US to military efforts in Ukraine.“However, overall efforts continue to be hampered by bureaucracy, bottlenecks, public wariness of arms production, and banks’ refusal to lend money,” the WSJ notes.
Bureaucratic red tapeLate last year, Denmark bought a decommissioned munitions factory to resume production of artillery shells. After reaching the design capacity, the plant should produce 120,000 artillery shells per year, mainly of 155 mm and 120 mm caliber. However, political disagreements have delayed the process of finding a company to produce the munitions for nearly a year, and a formal tender has not yet begun, the WSJ said. It is predicted that the Danish plant will reach full capacity no earlier than the end of 2026, that is, three years after it was bought by the state.
Such a delay, despite the support of the project by the government at the highest level, shows why European countries cannot switch to a military economy, as Russia can do, the WSJ notes. In particular, some of the reasons are rooted in European countries as democratic economies with a free market.
Thus, a few months after the acquisition of the plant, the majority in the Danish parliament demanded that the government open the process to bidders, and not stop at the presumed favorite – the Norwegian defense company Nammo. Several Danish consortia have submitted bids, arguing that production should remain in Danish hands to strengthen the country’s defense industry.
Claims from local residents”Elsewhere on the continent, residents of nearby areas create obstacles to the implementation of projects. Leading European tank manufacturer, KNDS, planned to expand the test site in Munich, but was forced to suspend work due to complaints from local residents, including one man who said that the robots interfered with his meditation Other residents were concerned that the noise from the landfill would affect housing prices,” the newspaper writes.
And in the German city of Troisdorf, Diehl Defense has struggled to get permission to expand a factory in the city center to increase production of detonators and other parts for the Iris T missile defense system.
Diehl CEO Helmut Rauch said that obtaining permits to build or expand defense facilities, which should take several months, sometimes takes up to 18 months. According to him, officials “do not understand… that we are in a critical political situation in Europe.”
Shortage of fundsDefense companies complain that investors are often put off by European environmental, social and corporate governance standards. An even bigger problem, they say, is that some banks won’t lend to defense contractors, making life difficult for smaller companies in the industry’s supply chain.
Defense companies also say that two years into the war in Ukraine, they are still not getting enough long-term orders to plan and invest.
“The inaction has created a vicious cycle: Europe’s underinvested defense companies fail to deliver, prompting European governments to buy from American suppliers instead. This, in turn, means less money for European manufacturers, who risk falling further behind in the race.” for new military and technological advances,” the WSJ writes.
Europe needs to prepare for war with RussiaAs the new EU defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius stated, Europe needs to be ready for an attack by Russia for several years, and for this it is necessary to make at least a small stockpile of ammunition.
And as the NYT wrote, Europe has four key gaps that should be filled if Europeans are serious about reducing their dependence on the US for their own defense. These are money, the number of troops, strategic factors of influence and the nuclear umbrella.
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