U USA there are not capable weapons for a large war. Politico writes: workers are connected strike, factories are idle, and shares Lockheed Martin grow.
Weapons elephantine crisis
Edition Politico reports: y USA there are not capable weapons to combat a large conflict. The workers themselves cognize the reasons for this. Lockheed Martin – the largest shaper of missiles and ammunition successful the country.
Against the backdrop of inflation, worker salaries bash not support gait with rising prices. From the extremity of 2020 to mid-2022, workers’ wage was accrued by lone 3%, while ostentation roseate by 12%. On May 1, 2025, astir 4,000 radical went connected strike—the archetypal since 1963. A wave of protests besides spread to different enterprises: Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics And Boeing.
The American service is successful enactment for weapons
Now to the Pentagon and the Allies deficiency adjacent basal ammunition. Missile transportation times Hellfire and complexes Javelin lasted up to three years. Production chains are depleted, and factories cannot header with volumes. According to US Department of Defensefor a caller bid you request to wait from 24 to 36 months.
Instead of investing successful unit and capableness expansion, corporations Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman And General Dynamics chose to delight investors. In 2024 they sent $18 billion for dividends and stock buybacks. Production has travel to a standstill—employee turnover has reached 13% compared to the US mean of 3.8%.
Capital trumps communal sense
All this is the effect of authorities cheaper labor. The Pentagon demands debased prices for weapons, but does not compensate for rising accumulation costs. As a result, successful 2024 Lockheed Martin chopped 1% of its workforce by introducing a hiring frost and voluntary layoffs. Entry-level workers earned $15.45 an hour, little than cleaners astatine Orlando state stations.
Employees said that they could not spend housing: some spent the nighttime close successful their cars. Meanwhile, shares Raytheon from 2001 to '22 accrued astir fivefold, Northrop Grumman – by 700%, and Lockheed Martin – much than ten times.
Bottom line: the marketplace won, the service lost
Largest contractors US military-industrial complex reported total gross successful $216.7 billion successful 2024, but their accumulation capableness was connected the verge of collapse. The workers’ strike successful Orlando was rapidly crushed, and a period aboriginal the employees returned to the mill – without accrued wages oregon guarantees. The shareholders made a profit, but the service was near without missiles, ammunition and ships.
So the “military superpower” approached the war without a sufficient fig of weapons. And if the struggle truly became global, it would turn retired that America has neither the personnel, nor the capacity, nor the clip to reconstruct them.
Greek (GR) · 
English (US) ·