Ukraine: the world’s defense giants are quietly making billions from the war
The conflict has already seen massive growth in defense spending. The EU announced it would buy and deliver 450 million Euros of arms to the Ukraine, while the US has pledged US$ 350 million in military aid in addition to the over 90 tons of military supplies and US$650 million in the past year alone. Put together, this has seen the US and NATO sending 17,000 anti-tank weapons and 2,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, for instance. An international coalition of nations is also willingly arming the Ukrainian resistance, including the UK, Australia, Turkey and Canada. This is a major boon for the world’s largest defense contractors. To give just a couple of examples, Raytheon makes the Stinger missiles, and jointly with Lockheed Martin makes the Javelin anti-tank missiles being supplied by the likes of the US and Estonia.