N°24 mai 2022 All the capitalist states are increasing their armaments budgets, the arms trade has never been so flourishing, the multinationals in the sector do not complain about it and profit on terror and death.
A means for competing imperialisms to revive the economy and the profits of multinational arms companies and to position themselves against other powers. A war of contracts within the war is also taking place between European and American industrialists. "With Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, the United States holds the top five global companies; nearly 180 billion dollars (164 billion euros) in turnover, 54% of armaments sales and 39% of exports, a share that continues to grow" writes the newspaper Le Monde.
Over the past month, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has only precipitated a movement initiated since 2014, the order book of American industrialists has filled up.
Global arms sales have doubled in value between 1996 and 2020 to nearly $2 trillion. Difficult to quantify because of the opacity of many contracts and arms donations, the global arms trade is around 100 billion dollars a year, according to experts.
In the world's top 5 arms exporters, the United States is by far the world leader and France is number 3. Both have seen their share increase significantly in five years, rising respectively from 32 to 39% and from around 6% to 11%(1). China, the world's fourth largest exporter (4.6%) and Germany, number five (4.5%) saw their share erode slightly. Russia still ranks second, but its share has shrunk to 19% as China has become completely independent from Russian weapons. The latest Sipri report indicates that Europe represents 13% (+3%) of the total arms trade, far behind the Asia-Oceania zone (43%) and the Middle East (32%).
Asia-Oceania The increase in arms purchases in this region also reminds us that there is another hotbed of tension between imperialists: Taiwan. "Tensions between China and several countries in Asia and Oceania are the main driver of imports in the region," notes Sipri. Asia-Oceania (mainly China, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea and Pakistan) saw its expenditure increase fourfold to reach more than 500 billion dollars in 2020. This region has seen the emergence of a defense pact between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia (AUKUS) against China.
The Middle East, the world's second largest import market, grew by 3%, driven in particular by investments from Qatar in the face of tensions with its Gulf neighbors. "Current oil prices mean they're going to have a lot of revenue, and usually that translates into big arms orders," said SIPRI's Siemon Wezeman. India and Saudi Arabia share the first place in the world for imports, with 11% each.
Africa’s military spending has increased, but this continent represents only a small share of arms purchases in the world in 2021, less than 6%. Russia is the largest arms supplier on this continent, weighing 44% of arms imports in Africa, far ahead of the United States (17%) and China (10%). The African countries find themselves in the middle of a confrontation where the peoples have nothing to gain.
The European continent is the one where arms purchases have increased the most in the period 2017-2021, in the last five years + 19%, making this continent a "new hot spot", in the words of Siemon Wezeman, co-author of this Sipri annual report.
Germany is considering the purchase of an Israeli-designed missile shield, similar to the Israeli state's "Iron Dome". The German government is going on the offensive by spending nearly 2 billion euros on this anti-missile system. The German army will buy 35 F35 stealth planes from the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, carriers of American nuclear bombs within the framework of NATO missions. In just a few weeks, Berlin's change in strategy has become very concrete. Christine Lambrecht, the German Defense Minister, spoke of "a strong role for Germany" which would thus be ensured through this purchase. She explains that the F-35s offer "a unique potential for cooperation" with the German NATO allies. Indeed the American fighter plane is already used in the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Finland. The ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals, gathered around Chancellor Olaf Scholz, successor to Angela Merkel, plans an exceptional envelope of 100 billion euros for the national army and to spend each year at least 2% of national GDP in defense while claiming to achieve budgetary rigor in 2023 at the same time.
France is following its 2019-2025 military programming law, which plans to increase the army budget from 40.9 billion euros in 2022 to 50 billion in 2025 (2.5% of GDP), Emmanuel Macron planning to " amplify” the effort. The Air Force will have 210 Rafale. The “Preparation and employment of forces” will obtain 10.8 billion euros. 1.2 billion will finance the additional costs of external operations and external missions! The government does not hesitate to release funds for military operations which it refuses to satisfy the demands of employees.
Italy, the majority that supports the government of Mr. Draghi, has finally agreed on a financial trajectory aimed at achieving the objective subscribed by Rome within the framework of NATO. The trans-alpine armed forces should benefit from an annual budget higher by around 12 billion euros compared to that of 2022. This enables it to launch and finance many programs, such as the construction of the Trieste aircraft carrier, the purchase of F-35 combat aircraft, the renewal of medium armored vehicles, etc…
Spain spends 62 million euros a day on the military budget: purchase of Eurofighter EF-2000 for 12.8 billion euros, "A-400M" transport aircraft at a cost of 5 billion euros (equivalent to 27,720 hospital beds), "submarine S -80" for 2.8 billion euros (equivalent to 62,222 nurses), "F-110 frigates" for 800 million euros (equivalent to 15,094 doctors),Leopard tanks for 2.8 billion, NH-90 helicopters for 1.5 billion euros (equivalent to 990,712 intensive care beds), VCR 8×82 vehicles for 2.1 billion euros, or KEPD-150 Taurus SPike and Iris-T2 missiles for 706 million euros.
Bulgaria buys from Lockheed Martin 8 F-16 Block 70 combat aircraft and ammunition for 1.67 billion dollars.
Poland: will increase its combat capabilities: the American General Dynamics sells to that country 250 combat tanks for 5 billion dollars and 32 F-35A aircraft at $4.6 billion. To this amount, is added an investment of 9 billion dollars "to acquire additional equipment and adapt the infrastructure of the country's air bases".
Finland, a country bordering Russia but not a member of NATO, intends to buy missiles and strengthen its military ties with the United States. It has also chosen the American F-35 plane to renew its fleet, in a contract of 8.4 billion euros for 64 aircraft, the largest arms contract in its history. Finland has just announced a 40% increase in its military budget.
Sweden is thinking of organizing a referendum on joining NATO... and will again significantly increase its military spending and bring it to 2% of GDP, i.e. more than 10.1 billion euros, against 6.59 billion euros currently.
Russia and Ukraine since 2005 have increased the share of their GDP devoted to armaments, which reminds us that the ongoing war on Ukrainian soil is indeed the result of a crisis that has gone on for years.
Canada intends to buy 88 F-35 fighter planes from the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a contract worth several billion dollars, announced the Minister of the Armed Forces, Anita Anand, who specifies. "The F-35 is used by our NATO partners around the world."
These data confirm what we keep saying, the arms industry is not preparing for peace. Who will believe “that a new era, heralding more sovereignty and even peace” is coming! More weapons and armaments will never bring peace. The objective of capital is clear: to develop a policy of war as a means of imposing itself in the fierce competition between the capitalist monopolies throughout the world. War and armaments are a source of profit for the capitalists and an enormous burden for the peoples to bear. This policy of over-armament can only lead to disaster; it can only be fought through the struggle of the peoples against war and through the political struggle to open up a revolutionary perspective and advance towards the construction of a socialist society.
Our Party fights against imperialism, demands the withdrawal of France from NATO, the armed wing of the great capitalist powers under the leadership of the United States; NATO whose expenditure amounts to 1051 billion dollars 778 for the USA and 273 for the EU that is more than 50% of world expenditure, compared to China 185 billion dollars, for Russia the expenditure amounts to 61.7 billion dollars. We refuse that the peoples get dragged into new imperialist conflicts which will be waged against them. We must ensure and guarantee the sovereignty and independence of France and of all States; fight to free France from capitalist domination. We are fighting to establish a real policy of peace, to develop peaceful cooperation, for a policy of disarmament worldwide, with the dissolution of NATO and of all military pacts. In the short term we demand an end to imperialist interventions and aggressions all over the world.
We call for the mobilization and immediate organization of the working class, of all the workers and of the people to say No to imperialist war! Join our fight.
(1) 80 Rafale fighters for the United Arab Emirates, a monumental order of 16 billion euros including armament; 30 additional aircraft by Egypt (in addition to the 24 already purchased), and orders from Greece (24 aircraft), and Croatia (12 second-hand aircraft). The 2021 order intake reaches 166 aircraft in one year. An unprecedented figure, which corresponds to 16 years of production of the Rafale at the current rate.