Or is US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe just crying wolf for more defense spending?
Gen. Chris Cavoli warned Congress on Thursday that Russia is rebuilding its military quickly. That includes an artillery ammo stockpile triple the size of the combined US and European inventory. Cavoli also said Russia is about to produce 10 times the number of tanks that the US does per year.
Russia may be losing weapons, tanks, and ammo at a staggering pace in Ukraine, but its defense production is going to easily make up for it, a top US general told Congress on Thursday.
The fog of war makes it difficult to know. What I do know is that I love how Ukraine is taking out Russian weapon depots, radars, fuel storage, and Black Sea ships (if true).
That might be true, but we have something like 3,000 Abrams tanks active and another 2,000 in storage. The rest of NATO has a similar number. The Russians have…less than that.
The key here is to send more Javelins to Ukraine. They are way cheaper than tanks and will easily soak up that production.
Artillery is king in Ukraine. But NATO doctrine is combined arms with air supremacy. Russia doesn’t have much of an air force. Or navy for that matter. A Russia vs. NATO battlefield would look much different that what we are seeing today in Ukraine. I suspect also the general is including refurbished tanks in that total. Russia is pulling 1950s era tanks out of storage and using them on the battlefield. And even then they have an enormous shortage of armor. They are literally sending troops into battle on electric scooters.
And yes, sanctions in general aren’t that effective and often backfire.