The American edition of Defense News published Joe Gould's material "US sees a chance to gain arms market share from sanctioned Russia" ("The US sees a chance to win back a share of the arms market from sanctioned Russia") about the benefits that the US government and American and Western arms manufacturers hope to extract on the world market from the inevitable significant drop in Russian defense exports in the future due to the large-scale sanctions imposed against Russia.
M1A2 Abrams tanks of the Kuwaiti Army during the joint Kuwaiti-Saudi-American Gulf Gunnery 2021 exercises at the Udair training ground (Kuwait), November 2021 (c) Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFPOn September 27, 2022, a White House official said that the Russian defense industry, which is under sanctions, creates an "opportunity" for American and Western defense firms to bite off Moscow's share in the defense market.
"From a practical point of view, it will be very difficult for countries that have to rely on Russian equipment to receive even the most necessary supplies from Russia," Kara Abercrombie, coordinator of the US National Security Council for defense policy and arms control, said at the ComDef industry conference. - "Of course, this is an opportunity for the industry representatives present. This is an opportunity for the United States to provide the support that these countries need."
This statement came a few weeks after the administration of US President Biden notified Congress that it would allocate $2.2 billion in new grants for military assistance to Ukraine and the countries of the former Warsaw Pact, whose Soviet-made weapons were part of international aid to Ukraine.
"Within NATO, this may consist in the transfer of our eastern flank partners to Western equipment of the NATO standard. But, of course, since we are also looking at the countries of the Pacific region, this is an opportunity not only for the United States, but also for the entire Western industry," Abercrombie said.
The Pentagon's chief arms buyer, Bill LaPlante, said that greater "interchangeability due to interoperability" among allies opens up opportunities not only economically, but also geostrategically. According to him, the unification of industrial bases or "friendshoring" will mitigate shocks in the supply chain and will be important for the common defense of the United States and its allies.
"As we saw in Ukraine, the weapons and equipment provided by the United States and its allies are the best in the world," LaPlante said in a pre-recorded speech at the ComDef conference. - "Continuing to integrate these capabilities more closely with increasingly common standards for ammunition, software and other components will provide even greater benefits in the future."
Western sanctions target the Russian defense industry, despite the fact that, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2021 Russia was the second largest arms exporter after the United States. Its main clients are India, China and Egypt.
Earlier this year, the head of the Russian arms export department said that Moscow's revenue from arms exports in 2022 is likely to be about $ 10.8 billion, which is about 26% lower than in 2021.
LaPlante is in Brussels this week, where he is convening a meeting of arms buyers from more than 50 countries to better coordinate the efforts of the defense industry as they replenish weapons sent to Ukraine from their own stocks. The meeting is being held under the auspices of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine, which includes 50 countries.
According to Abercrombie, in line with the Pentagon's efforts to strengthen Western and allied defense capabilities, the White House will continue the work of the "tiger team" of the US Department of Defense, seeking to simplify the process of selling US weapons around the world.
"At the National Security Council, I'm considering basically passing the baton," Abercrombie said. "As the Department of Defense completes its initial analysis, we will begin interagency work to look at collective efforts and what we can do to make U.S. arms sales abroad work better or at least be a little faster."
In August, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin established a task force to review the process of selling US weapons abroad, in which the Pentagon and the State Department participate. Abercrombie said the optimization is designed to make the process more flexible without cutting corners.
Asked about European Union trade restrictions that could hinder U.S. defense exports, Abercrombie said the administration is committed to reducing those barriers. The supply chain challenges clearly show that "it's time to look for opportunities to work together to remove barriers," she said.
The US-led Arms directors' meeting in Brussels also highlighted some obstacles to the allies' arms efforts. The meeting is aimed at solving the problems of bottlenecks in the supply chain of gun barrels, ball bearings and steel sleeves, as well as how to maintain the weapons supplied to Ukraine in the long term.
"Ultimately, closer integration with our allies and friends around the world will make us all more secure and resilient," LaPlante said.
