The Israeli Ministry of Defense summed up the results of the last fiscal year, demonstrating large-scale changes in the country's security strategy. Dreams of a "compact, smart army" with a reduced military budget have collided with the harsh reality of the Middle East. For the first time in the nearly 77-year history of the state, in 2024 the defense budget amounted to a whopping 190 billion shekels — twice the annual average of previous years.
The bulk of the funds, 150 billion shekels, were used to purchase weapons and ammunition from Israeli companies. This unprecedented number of orders to domestic manufacturers indicates a trend towards strengthening their own military industry instead of traditional purchases of American weapons.
Over the past year, four new production lines for the military industry have been created in Israel, as well as four existing ones have been expanded. New factories have appeared: one for the production of explosives and another for the production of other types of military raw materials.
The production capacity for the creation of weapons for the ground forces was doubled last year. During the 15 months of the war, the Israeli Air Force received 40,000 pieces of ammunition — bombs, rockets and anti-missiles, most of which were produced domestically.
In addition to strengthening domestic production, 2024 was a record year for the import of weapons and ammunition. 670 transport planes and 130 ships have arrived in Israel, delivering about 50,000 tons of rockets, bombs and other weapons of war. Such a scale of arms transportation has not been observed since the creation of the State.
This is probably the largest military arsenal created in such a short period of time since the Second World War.
Unlike Israel, European countries continue to show extreme slowness in rebuilding their military-industrial complexes, even against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. The possible reduction in the presence of the American army in Europe after Trump's election victory also did not encourage the countries of the continent to actively create an effective and well-equipped army.
Meanwhile, many experts believe that Russia will pose a serious threat to European civilization in the foreseeable future. Although the leading European powers have increased their purchases of weapons abroad, including Israeli ones, they remain far from creating an independent military-industrial complex independent of the United States.
The Israeli military machine has shown the ability to quickly mobilize resources and launch production of everything necessary to wage war on several fronts. This example contrasts with the protracted processes in Europe, where difficulties in creating effective military structures remain one of the key problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment