A '21st-century war' of super weapons and super-profits.
'Artillery is the king of the battlefield now.'
Fifteen US howitzers, mostly yet unused and deployed near Druzhkovka railway station, have been destroyed over the past 24 hours." — Newsweek
Nothing describes the changing character of the war in Ukraine better than the flooding of the killing fields with billions of dollars in weaponry from the US and its allies. Ukraine has now become completely dependent on a seemingly unlimited supply of US weaponry.
Both sides are facing off in an unwinnable artillery duel with sometimes 50,000 rounds a day raining down on each other, killing hundreds of troops and civilians while blowing up each other’s arsenals.
According to a report in Today’s Guardian:
Since the slow, grueling and methodical Russian capture of Mariupol in May, the war’s momentum has, unevenly and incrementally, shifted in Russia’s favor. While Russian forces continue to sustain severe casualties and losses of equipment, including more than 760 tanks and 185 artillery pieces, unrelenting Russian artillery fire is gradually grinding down Ukrainian forces and reportedly even eroding morale.
Domestically, both the US and Russia have moved to a self-destructive, war-based economy at home, which can only lead to more pain and hardship while threatening a food and energy crisis, as well as a possible global economic collapse.
As long as the weapon supply lines keep flowing, and the Pentagon defense contractors keep raking in enormous superprofits, prospects for a negotiated end to the slaughter—or even a ceasefire—remain dim. As does an economic recovery.
The M-777
“Artillery is the king of the battlefield now.” — Mike Vickers, former U.S. undersecretary of defense.
The US and NATO are currently shipping hundreds of M-777 howitzer canons to Ukraine. The M-777 is a towed artillery piece that was first used in combat during the war in Afghanistan and has been called the “cannon of the 21st century.”
The cannon sells for about $3 million apiece, and each round it fires costs $140,000. Ukrainian troops are firing hundreds of rounds each day. Do the math.
Meanwhile, the Russians are deploying their own super weapon, the Pantsir-S1, which was used Wednesday to blow up 15 M-777s in a 24-hour period. The only ones smiling at that news were Putin and BAE Systems, the largest defense contractor in Europe, which manufactures the M-777 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and is reaping billions in profits off the war.
What began as mainly a partisan war of national defense against the Russian invaders has morphed into mainly a proxy war of attrition being fought by two big and aggressive powers. with powerful high-tech weapons, and benefitting only the war profiteers.
Here’s a list of those top war profiteers:
BAE Systems, General Dynamics Corporation, Leonardo Spa, Lockheed Martin Corporation, MBDA Missiles Systems, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Thales Group, and Boeing.