The West Is No Longer The Arsenal Of Democracy

A local resident in Lviv, Ukraine, makes anti-tank obstacles as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, on March 2, 2022. (Pavlo Palamarchuk/Reuters) 

Alex Vershinin, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI): The Return of Industrial Warfare  

Can the West still provide the arsenal of democracy? 

The war in Ukraine has proven that the age of industrial warfare is still here. The massive consumption of equipment, vehicles and ammunition requires a large-scale industrial base for resupply – quantity still has a quality of its own. The mass scale combat has pitted 250,000 Ukrainian soldiers, together with 450,000 recently mobilised citizen soldiers against about 200,000 Russian and separatist troops. The effort to arm, feed and supply these armies is a monumental task. Ammunition resupply is particularly onerous. For Ukraine, compounding this task are Russian deep fires capabilities, which target Ukrainian military industry and transportation networks throughout the depth of the country. The Russian army has also suffered from Ukrainian cross-border attacks and acts of sabotage, but at a smaller scale. The rate of ammunition and equipment consumption in Ukraine can only be sustained by a large-scale industrial base.

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WNU editor: The first paragraph in the above post says it all. How is it that the Ukraine military that is fully mobilized for war and backed by the West, outnumbering the Russian expeditionary force in Ukraine by a ratio that is almost 4:1 in the combat zone, is steadily losing ground, territory, and large numbers of personnel. Alex Vershinin answers that question, and is in my opinion what makes this my must read post for today. His post is also a warning to the West on why it needs to rethink how it maintains its military, and why it must quickly build-up its industrial warfare base.

Update: If Russia is out-producing the US in supplying weapons and ammunition in the Ukraine war, there is no way the US can stand-up to China and its massive industrial base in any major military conflict. This is another reason why the US and the West must find a way to end the Ukraine war fast.

One final note. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is one of the world's oldest and prestigious institutes on the study of war. Their reports and analysis are always a must read (link here).