In hindsight the U.S. military-industrial complex was mostly about “pork!” Corporations made billions of dollars from U.S. military contracts!
When we needed to actually USE these weapons to defend our allies in Ukraine we were too afraid to use them!
Even now “defense” spending increases, politically friendly corporations get rich, and democracies have to fend for themselves as Trump supports RUSSIA!
GOOD FOR EUROPE TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS DUAL HYPOCRISY OF GREED AND TREASON!
I respectfully disagree. Deterrence requires both demonstrated capabilities, which we have, and a credible will to use them, which this regime has systematically undermined by betraying our allies, reneging on our collective defense and nonproliferation agreements, practicing extortion, and promoting chaos. It’s no wonder our allies have moved on. I think that this piece is spot on in seeing this as a tipping point for US military hegemony.
Do you also see, as I do, a similar pork approach to AI? Pour billions into massive scale server farms...only to get shown up by China's DeepSeek, which delivers the same results on the digital equivalent of a pair of Dixie Cups and string.
American corporations have forgotten to deliver good results is to stay in business.
The ATACMs in particular were designed to deter a Russian land invasion. They were designed during Soviet era. So when RU does attack "we, uhh, don't have enough of them to do any good" and "we don't want to escalate the war." The ATACMS were actually obsoleted a year ago. There's a far superior replacement missile. We surely have an inventory to deplete as they are phased out.
I hope the military-industrial complex turns on Trump. Anyway, bravo to Europe for perspicacity. No depending on the U.S. After Trump’s behavior toward Ukraine and his stupidity over Greenland and Canada what did anyone expect? Trump is playing footsie with Putin—it is too much to bear. And now there is Sabre rattling in the Middle East. Trump fails to understand that sovereign states don’t follow his every command.
Let’s be honest. The urgency of Ukraine’s plight is what has driven its own innovation and the fast implementation of IRIS-T systems. I tend to agree the longer range IRIS-SLX could be done faster given the sense of urgency and new debt facilities.
The next milestone to watch for is increased production of Swedish Grippen and French Mirage aircraft. Then we will really know the rest of Europe has switched to a war footing. Canada has also made recent announcements that they will begin going it alone or buy European systems as well.
“It’s the one system that works, is available, and is entirely in European hands.”
And, on top of that, it’s continuing to be actively tested in Ukraine under actual current combat conditions, with the “what works well and what doesn’t work so well yet or not anymore” information getting observed and reported.
The US government could have continued to have the same for their military industry, but they chose to walk away from that source of information.
It takes time for the sleeping giant that is the European defense industry to wake up and get moving. It needed a catalyst. Trump and his topsy-turvy foreign "policy" was it.
Europeans would be very foolish to base their sovereignty and security on the whims, prejudice, and nihilism of American swing state voters who cannot be trusted with anything as serious as a country’s liberty.
The US has had too much power and has been an ongoing bully towards other countries. It cannot do that any more, the world has walked away, developed new alliances and the US is no longer a world leader or super power.
What a gift from Trump that is - NOT!
Trump continues by his bastardy and violence to the American people and did not expect he would be shunned, criticised and abandoned by a consumer world the US depended on to fuel its greed.
Trump has been overspending, the budget is a mess and trillions of income dollars in the loss of tourism (Trump made America unsafe for tourists), Tesla sales have tanked ( Due to Musk and Trump policies) and now the expected trajectory of continued and increased income from weapons is fading away (No country can trust a Trump led nation).
The US is heading for a very hard fall as more and more business with the US drops off.
Any reasonably thinking person would have to think that when it comes to weapons, the US is too controlling of weapon use.
The biggest most importantly Trump and his Russian supporting comrades cannot be trusted. Anyone can see they would pass on any intelligence they could gain to Putin.
I would imagine that this mistrust has amplified since Trump failing to supply the promised armoury to the Ukraine ans instead sent them to the middle east. To the world, this indicates the US a traitor anscso are some other Republicans now they are coming out of the woodwork.
So, the Trump regime in under 4 months has been highly effective in Countries quietly walking away from Tantrum Trump and his cronies.
Of course he will blame countries rather than accept responsibility for his actions.
The only way to commence healing of the US and international relationships is for Americans to use the rights of citizens as espoused in the declaration of independence.
This could constitute ongoing and consistent calls to fire Trump such as impeachment and call for an election and for the instant removal of his vile sadistic cronies within his circle if hate of democracy.
There is an opportunity to do this peacefully with the call of the people and in Congress.
Any politician who has a beleif in US democracy overriding building tyranny would surely want things to change and NOW. Those who do not agree with this should stay away from proceedings.
It may seem paradoxical to think, but I believe this is exactly what the Americans wanted, namely that we Europeans would start doing things on our own. They have been telling us this for at least a decade, but we haven't done it. Now that they are threatening to leave us alone against Russia, our military-industrial sector is starting to accelerate.
They want it both ways, surely? They want Europe to spend more on defence, but buy American. Oh and they also want to be able to bully smaller states (Denmark) with impunity. We’ll see if all of that works out for them.
It would be interesting to see if NASAMS can be modified to use the Meteor missile. I also wonder if Europe is waiting for the SAMP/T NG to officially enter production before making any long range air defense orders.
In hindsight the U.S. military-industrial complex was mostly about “pork!” Corporations made billions of dollars from U.S. military contracts!
When we needed to actually USE these weapons to defend our allies in Ukraine we were too afraid to use them!
Even now “defense” spending increases, politically friendly corporations get rich, and democracies have to fend for themselves as Trump supports RUSSIA!
GOOD FOR EUROPE TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS DUAL HYPOCRISY OF GREED AND TREASON!
I respectfully disagree. Deterrence requires both demonstrated capabilities, which we have, and a credible will to use them, which this regime has systematically undermined by betraying our allies, reneging on our collective defense and nonproliferation agreements, practicing extortion, and promoting chaos. It’s no wonder our allies have moved on. I think that this piece is spot on in seeing this as a tipping point for US military hegemony.
Do you also see, as I do, a similar pork approach to AI? Pour billions into massive scale server farms...only to get shown up by China's DeepSeek, which delivers the same results on the digital equivalent of a pair of Dixie Cups and string.
American corporations have forgotten to deliver good results is to stay in business.
The ATACMs in particular were designed to deter a Russian land invasion. They were designed during Soviet era. So when RU does attack "we, uhh, don't have enough of them to do any good" and "we don't want to escalate the war." The ATACMS were actually obsoleted a year ago. There's a far superior replacement missile. We surely have an inventory to deplete as they are phased out.
I hope the military-industrial complex turns on Trump. Anyway, bravo to Europe for perspicacity. No depending on the U.S. After Trump’s behavior toward Ukraine and his stupidity over Greenland and Canada what did anyone expect? Trump is playing footsie with Putin—it is too much to bear. And now there is Sabre rattling in the Middle East. Trump fails to understand that sovereign states don’t follow his every command.
The MIC has yet to lose enough money to turn yet. But give it time...we'll hit that point.
Let’s be honest. The urgency of Ukraine’s plight is what has driven its own innovation and the fast implementation of IRIS-T systems. I tend to agree the longer range IRIS-SLX could be done faster given the sense of urgency and new debt facilities.
The next milestone to watch for is increased production of Swedish Grippen and French Mirage aircraft. Then we will really know the rest of Europe has switched to a war footing. Canada has also made recent announcements that they will begin going it alone or buy European systems as well.
“It’s the one system that works, is available, and is entirely in European hands.”
And, on top of that, it’s continuing to be actively tested in Ukraine under actual current combat conditions, with the “what works well and what doesn’t work so well yet or not anymore” information getting observed and reported.
The US government could have continued to have the same for their military industry, but they chose to walk away from that source of information.
The world has already moved on
It takes time for the sleeping giant that is the European defense industry to wake up and get moving. It needed a catalyst. Trump and his topsy-turvy foreign "policy" was it.
Europeans would be very foolish to base their sovereignty and security on the whims, prejudice, and nihilism of American swing state voters who cannot be trusted with anything as serious as a country’s liberty.
I knew Germany could do it. Bravo.
The US has had too much power and has been an ongoing bully towards other countries. It cannot do that any more, the world has walked away, developed new alliances and the US is no longer a world leader or super power.
What a gift from Trump that is - NOT!
Trump continues by his bastardy and violence to the American people and did not expect he would be shunned, criticised and abandoned by a consumer world the US depended on to fuel its greed.
Trump has been overspending, the budget is a mess and trillions of income dollars in the loss of tourism (Trump made America unsafe for tourists), Tesla sales have tanked ( Due to Musk and Trump policies) and now the expected trajectory of continued and increased income from weapons is fading away (No country can trust a Trump led nation).
The US is heading for a very hard fall as more and more business with the US drops off.
Any reasonably thinking person would have to think that when it comes to weapons, the US is too controlling of weapon use.
The biggest most importantly Trump and his Russian supporting comrades cannot be trusted. Anyone can see they would pass on any intelligence they could gain to Putin.
I would imagine that this mistrust has amplified since Trump failing to supply the promised armoury to the Ukraine ans instead sent them to the middle east. To the world, this indicates the US a traitor anscso are some other Republicans now they are coming out of the woodwork.
So, the Trump regime in under 4 months has been highly effective in Countries quietly walking away from Tantrum Trump and his cronies.
Of course he will blame countries rather than accept responsibility for his actions.
The only way to commence healing of the US and international relationships is for Americans to use the rights of citizens as espoused in the declaration of independence.
This could constitute ongoing and consistent calls to fire Trump such as impeachment and call for an election and for the instant removal of his vile sadistic cronies within his circle if hate of democracy.
There is an opportunity to do this peacefully with the call of the people and in Congress.
Any politician who has a beleif in US democracy overriding building tyranny would surely want things to change and NOW. Those who do not agree with this should stay away from proceedings.
It may seem paradoxical to think, but I believe this is exactly what the Americans wanted, namely that we Europeans would start doing things on our own. They have been telling us this for at least a decade, but we haven't done it. Now that they are threatening to leave us alone against Russia, our military-industrial sector is starting to accelerate.
They want it both ways, surely? They want Europe to spend more on defence, but buy American. Oh and they also want to be able to bully smaller states (Denmark) with impunity. We’ll see if all of that works out for them.
And just think...this is only ONE facet of the decline in US hegemony. There will be many, many more to come.
The whole MIC moving on. Last brilliant person of science or engineering…tosses the monkey wrench into the machine.
Well good, when another WW happens, I damn sure won’t be rooting for this shithole, that will apparently mean going against our allies.
It would be interesting to see if NASAMS can be modified to use the Meteor missile. I also wonder if Europe is waiting for the SAMP/T NG to officially enter production before making any long range air defense orders.