According to Joseph Fitsanakis, professor of intelligence and security studies at Coastal Carolina University, “Russian military production is currently outpacing that of the US and all of NATO member states combined. This may be hard to believe, but Russia is obligated to do it if it is going to outpace the support given to Ukraine.
“Such gargantuan spending has essentially created a war economy, which has prevented the onset of a major economic recession,” Fitsanakis told Al Jazeera.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has estimated that Russia has spent a total of $200bn on the Ukraine war alone.
At $1,341bn, NATO’s defence spending dwarfs Russia’s. Yet it seems ineffective in quickly turning spending power into firepower in a crisis.
European contractors do not benefit from increases in national defence budgets, in contrast to Russia, which produces its military equipment domestically and is working to onshore its supply chains.
France is a case in point. Its top defence performers suffered an 8.5 percent drop led by a 60 percent fall in Dassault Aviation’s order book for the Rafale multirole fighter, as European militaries pass it over in favour of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 as their next-generation jet.
