Wen Jiujiu Deer Ming

Statement: The content of this article comes from authoritative materials, combined with the original content written by personal opinions, the article marks the source of literature and screenshots, please be aware.

Preliminary

Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the sky of the city has long been a ¡°showground¡± for missiles and drones.

Whenever the alarm goes off, residents quickly hide in the subway station or basement. For Ukrainians, the Patriot air defense system is like a patron saint. It is one of the few "shields" that can intercept Russian ballistic missiles.

But the ammunition was not inexhaustible, and the war consumed it even faster, Zelensky said at a news conference on September 17 that the entire Ukrainian army was at ease.

We¡¯re sure to have Patriot missiles and Hamas rockets, and they¡¯ll be shipped directly from U.S. warehouses.

This means that the near-end ammunition warehouses can be filled up again, but this military aid is meaningful, weapons are U.S. money but NATO allies, why is the West so determined to help Ukraine?

The war is ammunition.

The war has been going on so far, and the Ukrainian army's most headache is not without weapons, but without ammunition.The Patriot air defense system, the air defense device developed by the U.S. company Raytheon, has a single cost of more than $1 billion.

And the cost of each interceptor bomb is between $ 2 million and $ 4 million, and it can be ¡°bite iron with gold¡±.

Tactical ballistic missiles such as the ¡°Iskander¡± can reach speeds of 7 Mach, and the general air defense system can not stop at all.

Only the high-end patriotic goods could preserve Kiev¡¯s power plants, water plants and deadly infrastructure at critical times.In the early days of the war, the Russian military launched multiple missile attacks on Kiev.According to data released by the Ukrainian military, the Patriot system¡¯s interception success rate exceeded 90 percent.

Behind this figure is the sight of a multi-million-dollar interceptor bomb exploding in the sky.

Furthermore, the Haymas, the weapons system known by the Ukrainians as the "Changer of the Rules of the Game", is the biggest feature of "Fight and Run" - it takes only a few minutes to launch six rockets and then move the position. The range can be managed depending on the gun length, the maximum can even reach six hundred miles, the precision can be controlled within two digits.

At the beginning of the war, Russian artillery stillined the old tradition of the Soviet era ¨C centralized deployment, intensive bombardment. As a result of the Hamas, these artillery positions became live targets. The Ukrainian army used the Hamas to defeat countless Russian arsenal of ammunition, command and artillery positions.

But here comes the problem. Haimas consumes ammunition far faster than imagined. A launch vehicle is equipped with 6 rockets, which have to be replenished after the launch. According to the intensity of use by the Ukrainian army, thousands of pieces of various types of ammunition can be destroyed in a month. No matter how much inventory the United States has, it can't afford such consumption.

And this time their military aid to Ukraine has a very interesting place, that is that the money is not from the United States, but from NATO allies.

The ¡°NATO¡± model

This mechanism, called the PURL (Priority Ukraine Demand List), is said to be NATO countries to raise money and let the United States take weapons from its stockpile to Ukraine.

According to Zelensky's speech, the first batch of aid packages they gave to Ukraine this time actually reached an astonishing billion dollars, and all these weapons were bought from the United States with NATO's money.

The reason is simple, the U.S. has the most arms inventory, the fastest assembly, the most complete model. The European countries have not much of their own inventory, rather than crushing it from the bottom of their own, rather than spending money to supply the U.S. directly.

The mechanism was established in June of this year, and began to operate in August, with a fairly high efficiency. According to Zelensky, the funds raised through the mechanism are expected to reach $3.5 billion by October. According to the current price of weapons, this money can buy a lot of things, but is it not a blame for Europe?

According to the German prime minister, the amount of military aid they have promised has exceeded €28 billion, after the United States, and Poland has shipped a large number of its tanks and cannons to Ukraine, then turned to the U.S. and Germany to buy new equipment.

Although the Nordic countries are small in size, they are also generous. Finland and Sweden rank among the best in Europe in terms of per capita aid. In the United States, the total amount of aid approved by Congress has exceeded $175 billion.

Although there is a lot of opposition within the Republican party, the mainstream opinion is in favor of continuing aid. After all, in the words of a U.S. congressman, this is the best opportunity to weaken Russia without sending a soldier.

Why is the West so willing to help Ukraine?

The logic of this "proxy war"

Geopolitical considerations come first. For Europe, Russia is on its doorstep. If Ukraine falls, it may be the next turn of the three Baltic countries or Poland. Instead of playing yourself then, it is better to spend money now to put Ukraine in front.

The idea of the United States is estimated to be more direct. So many years after the end of the Cold War, we finally have the opportunity to actually weaken Russia's military power.

The economic accounts are also very clear. Many of the weapons provided by the United States to Ukraine are in stock. For example, the M113 armored vehicle has been eating ash in the warehouse for decades. Instead of spending money to destroy it, it is better to send it to Ukraine.

And the purchase of new weapons orders, can also make U.S. military-industrial enterprises to earn full of money. The stock price of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Motors these military-industrial giants, since the beginning of the war has soared.

The European military industry has also welcomed the ¡°second spring¡±. Order orders for various military crafts such as the Rhinestone metal in Germany and the Thales in France have been in line several years later. countries have increased their defense budgets, and the NATO demanded military spending standards now seem to be inadequate.

A deeper consideration is the values and international order. In the Western view, if something happens if the great powers annex small nations, the international order established after the Second World War will collapse. Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it may be the Taiwan Sea, and the next day it may be elsewhere.

Of course, assistance is not unlimited. Anti-war voices are growing in the United States, and economic pressure in Europe is also increasing. Aid fatigue has emerged, and countries are wondering how long this war will last and how much it will cost.

The PURL mechanism appeared to some extent to address this fatigue. Reduce the pressure on individual countries through multi-national distribution costs. Improve aid efficiency by optimizing arms deployment.

conclusion

The war has been fought until now, and both sides have more will and endurance. Ukraine needs not only weapons, but also a source of continuous ammunition supplies.

How high the Patriot missiles can fly, and how far the Himalayan rockets can hit, is more crucial than the question of how long would the Western checks have been?