Defense contractors are forced to ramp up production but want long-term government guarantees of sales.
Business fears that they may expand production, but there will be no demand in three to five years.
Also, the lack of semiconductors and other problems with logistics have led to the fact that the order is three times longer than before the start of the conflict.
I thought we were told that it was all about protecting democracy and a free world, turns out it’s all about money.
And related to that: these contractors have started to get used to selling weapons that aren’t supposed to be used. Millions/billions pumped into r&d with no end in sight. Selling ammunition is profitable but it comes with raw material problems.
Plus the people involved in making the political decision know that people need to get re-elected. The longer the war, the harder that becomes. Wars like Libya and Iraq are roughly short enough for them (far too long for the victims). Wars like Afghanistan can breed resentment in the supporter base. A war for that long against Russia? Risky. If Russia would go along with it for that long. Maybe this is the break that you describe? Is this already happening, do you think?
Selling ammunition is profitable but it comes with raw material problems.
This is kinda funny actually because it mirrors the parasitic working of finance capitalism in the purely industrial one.
Financial capital prevailed over industrial because of their high profit margins and the fluidity of their capital. Industrial can’t do that because naturally production require huge investment, time required and logistical effort. All the things in Capital (1st and 3rd volume iirc)
But they still try, as the Redtea mentioned, that’s why in USA for the colossal amount of money spent you get insufferably bloated research projects like the Zumwalt or F35 that often also end in failure, and comparably to expectations and general bugdet, not much actual production of mundane things like munitions.
In a way, US MIC is operating like in the old mercenary philosophy “God, give us 100 years of war but no battles”
