Trump may “tighten the screws” on Putin’s arms production – Telegraph

Due to foreign sanctions, Russia has lost access to important materials needed to manufacture weapons. Now it is forced to buy them in other countries. If these countries face restrictions from the West, it could further complicate the situation for Russia. This was reported by the Telegraph, reports UNN.

DetailsAccording to the publication, one of the important components in the manufacture of weapons for Russia is a rare mineral – tantalum. Many high-tech industries use it to make capacitors. In particular, the best Russian cruise and ballistic missiles, drones and tanks contain processors, navigation systems or radio stations with tantalum capacitors.

But most of the tantalum comes from abroad. The main suppliers are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil and China. However, sanctions imposed by the United States and various European countries have reduced these supplies.

Although Russia has its own tantalum deposits, they are much smaller. Russia lacks advanced processing facilities to produce high-quality tantalum powder needed for capacitors

In particular, analysts stressed that sanctions “actually work.” However, according to the publication, after Trump came to power in the United States, the situation became more complicated due to his “chaotic and authoritarian” style of management.

Why tantalum shortage is dangerous for the Russian armyThe publication notes that the Russian industry is trying to produce enough new weapons to support the country’s 35-month war against Ukraine along the front line, which is almost 1,300 km long. However, Russian troops have already lost more than 15,000 units of modern armored vehicles and were forced to turn to old vehicles that they withdrew from long-term storage.

However, even these old vehicles are running out. Increasingly, Russian troops are attacking Ukrainian positions in civilian cars, vans or on foot.

The transition to unarmored vehicles and tactics has pushed average daily losses to new highs. Often, up to 2,000 Russians are killed or wounded in a single day, the publication emphasizes.

At the same time, Russians are losing control of the air in critical sectors, as Ukrainian drones outperform Russian ones in number and power.

The enemy has achieved sufficient scale and variety of its drones and has honed its tactics for their use

Against this background, the tantalum deficit is one, which is one of the factors in the reduction of arms production in Russia plays an even greater role.

Russian factories previously imported processed African, Chinese and South American tantalum from a large factory in Kazakhstan. But Kazakhstan has joined the sanctions regime, which has limited the flow of processed mineral powder.

Also, the Russians tried to buy more processed tantalum from China, but the quality was low.

According to Frontelligence, the Russian industry needs almost 800 kg of high-quality processed tantalum every month. To fulfill current contracts for new weapons in the coming months, Russian factories need more than 4.5 tons of this mineral, but current reserves are just over two tons. Russia has no ready-made solutions on where to buy the rest, according to Frontelligence.

The publication says that in order to compensate for this gap, the Russian industry could purchase more “dual-use” tantalum components – those intended for commercial products, but also suitable for weapons.

How to close the last source of tantalum for RussiaHowever, dual-use components, which are transferred from intermediary to intermediary and eventually supplied to Russia from countries that are not signatories to the sanctions regime, are coming in slowly – and at a higher price than Russian buyers would like. But they are really coming.

Closing this last source of tantalum should be a priority for Russia’s enemies and Ukraine’s friends.

Companies involved in the production or trade of tantalum powder or capacitors… should face the prospect of losing access to Western markets if they are found trading with Russia

However, it is equally likely that sanctions will be weakened, the publication notes, as the new Trump administration implements an extreme and sometimes strange agenda.

One of Trump’s first actions was to end all foreign aid, including support for Ukraine. In the following days, Trump focused much of his energy on threatening Danish leaders in an incomprehensible attempt to annex Greenland as a US territory.

Without America’s support, there is almost no prospect of introducing a stricter sanctions regime that could finally stop the flow of tantalum to Russia. By doing nothing – or, worse, by repealing existing sanctions – the US government, once the biggest enemy of the Russian arms industry, could save this industry from a tantalum famine

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