Europe's Small & Medium Arms Makers Flounder to Boost Production as Ukraine Aid Drains Stocks

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Svetlana Ekimenko

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After sending vast shipments of weapons into the Ukraine support sinkhole, the Kiev regime’s European enablers have struggled to boost their own arms production, facing bureaucracy, lack of cash, and other challenges.

Small and medium-sized European defense companies are struggling to expand production as supporting Ukraine continues to bleed the West’s weapons stockpiles white.

Cash-strapped firearms makers are hamstrung by lack of access to public funding, red tape, and reluctance of banks to give out loans to smaller players in the field, sources told Reuters.

While global military expenditure soared to an all-time high of $2.44 trillion in 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, getting financing is problematic for smaller companies.

Production will continue to stall until European governments figure out how to improve cash flows, arms makers, government officials, and defense experts were cited as saying.

The EU’s small and medium-sized defense enterprises face a debt financing gap of between $1.08 billion and $2.2 billion, a European Commission report estimated at the beginning of the year.

A Ukrainian soldier carries a U.S.-supplied Stinger - Sputnik International, 1920, 11.10.2024

US Defense Contractor Raytheon Making Billions From Weapons for Ukraine

At the same time, not only has the US war machine been profiting off NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, venture capital (VC) investment in military startups is booming in the US. VC money funneled into defense startups in the United States doubled in size to reach $33 billion between 2019 and 2022, FT reported.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that continued arms deliveries to Ukraine hinder a resolution of the conflict, with shipments meant for the Kiev regime designated as legitimate targets for Russia.