The United States can no longer supply the Ukrainian military, as they have significantly depleted their stocks of weapons and ammunition in the war against Iran.
Therefore, Europe must increase its arms production to support Ukraine in the war initiated by Russia, stated on Tuesday the European Commissioner for Defense, Andrius Kubilius, quoted by Agerpres.
\”The American defense industry will need a few years – three or four – to replenish these reserves. Consequently, we must focus much more on our own military production,\” said the European Commissioner in an interview given to the European Newsroom (ENR) news agency network.
The European Union has so far acquired about 40% of its weaponry from the USA.
Here, key systems such as the Patriot anti-aircraft batteries and the missiles for these batteries supplied to Ukraine, acquired through the PURL program (“Priority Needs List for Ukraine”), come into play.
PURL is the NATO initiative through which European countries in the military alliance purchase weapons and ammunition from the USA intended for Kiev.
European Commissioner, after consulting ChatGPT: Russia far surpasses the EU in arms production
\”We rely significantly on American services: space data, heavy air transport, in-flight refueling, command and control systems, among others,\” emphasized Andrius Kubilius.
\”Our great problem is that we are still far behind Russia in production,\” the official continued.
According to Kubilius, Russia produced about 1,200 cruise missiles and approximately 1,000 ballistic missiles last year.
During the same period, EU states produced zero ballistic missiles and less than 300 cruise missiles.
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