NATO MEMBER STATES LACK ARMS AND AMMUNITION
The war in Ukraine is financed by the West. Not only with a lot of money, billions and billions are diverted to this country of which we have not the slightest idea what it is used for and whether it is actually being used and not ending up in the pockets of one or the other through all kinds of detours but, also, with arms and ammunition. Every NATO member state has sent, over the past year, large quantities of army supplies and even placed orders for arms and ammunition which are not destined for the country itself but for Ukraine and paid for with taxpayers' money.
This is no different in Belgium. The Vivaldi government is throwing millions towards Ukraine and has completely plundered the poor army that has been treated very stepmotherly for many years in terms of supplies of amour, helmets, army clothing, tanks, ammunition. Everything has gone down the drain This makes the country militarily very weak.
At a recent press conference, Jens Stoltenberg expressed that ammunition consumption ( due to the war in Ukraine ) is greater than ammunition production. In other words, there is a shortage of ammunition. Not only for Ukraine but also for all member states, which significantly limits military capabilities.
However, what Stoltenberg wisely conceals is the fact that stocks cannot be replenished on short notice. The waiting time for the delivery of heavy-calibre ammunition has increased from 12 months to 28 months. An order placed today can only be delivered in 2.5 years.
Stoltenberg states that NATO is investing in the increasing of the production capacity of the weapon industry. This is a pertinent lie. It is not NATO as an organisation but the individual member states that finance NATO and thus also have to provide the necessary funds to increase the production capacity of the industry.
The most targeted European company is Belgium's FN ( Fabrique National ) in Herstal. FN is owned by the holding company Herstal Group, which in turn is owned by the Walloon government. Herstal Group also owns all the shares of North American Browning Arms Company and US Repeating Arms Company which manufactures Winchester-branded weapons.
FN Herstal itself also has a sister company in the USA formed by a merger between two former US FN divisions, being FN Manufacturing and FNH USA. Finally, FN Herstal also owns a manufacturing division in the United Kingdom, being FNH UK. The multitude of weapons and ammunition produced by FN are used by the armed forces in over 100 countries.
Anyone who thinks the Walloon government is " poor " shall better think twice.
War is big business for the weapon industry. In Belgium, this industry is in the hands of Wallonia, which has won the big jackpot thanks to the war in Ukraine and the systematic skimming of military supplies from NATO member states. That said, the EU will remain militarily very weak for the next 2 years due to the absence of the required supplies.
When one considers that an awful lot of the arms, ammunition and tanks supplied by the EU to Ukraine are turning up on the black market where they are sold for peanuts, Stoltenberg's lamentation testifies of a phenomenal failure policy. The EU commission is sick in the same bed.