4 ms·

At the risk of stating the obvious - that is what the military industrial complex is. Once you "donate" weapons - who is going to service them? Who gets the con

At the risk of stating the obvious - that is what the military industrial complex is. Once you "donate" weapons - who is going to service them? Who gets the contracts for maintenance, ammunition, training, etc, etc? For the US, war is big business. This "donation" isn't altruistic or an accident.

_kbh_ 4y ago
I dare say the people servicing the weapons in a war zone in Ukraine are going to be the Ukrainians. Ammo is coming from everywhere, either stock piles or other countries when appropriate. And to the Ukrainians this is altruistic, the Americans are handing over advanced weapons for free to help fight off an invading army. It doesn’t get much more altruistic than that.
- trap_goes_hot 4y ago
  No, the Ukrainians are not going to service radars, helicopters, drones, tanks that they have no idea about and were just given. Nothing is for free - and that is the point, it feeds the US war machine.
  - onepointsixC 4y ago
    Except all of it was given for free. The tanks that the Ukrainians received were Soviet era ones which they can maintain themselves. The drone's maintenance costs are tiny compared to the acquisitions costs, and the mere dozen of HIMARS are cheap compared to the incredible amount of munitions they were given to fire them. Nothing you have stated has any relation to reality. The US will never make even a single percentage point in income from the maintenance from the tens of billions in weapons given - many of which were literal munitions.
  - _kbh_ 4y ago
    > No, the Ukrainians are not going to service radars, helicopters, drones, tanks that they have no idea about and were just given. They are also given training including maintenance training on the weapon systems they are using. It's one of the reasons they haven't been given planes or their heavier systems (such as tanks). > Nothing is for free - and that is the point, it feeds the US war machine. It's free for the Ukrainians they are literally not paying, the Americans are getting great PR, and also free battle testing against real Russian targets. Additionally the Americans are getting to heavily deplete the Russian army without even having to use any of their own soldiers. It's a heaps good deal.
    - trap_goes_hot 4y ago
      Well, I've failed at getting my point across so I'll just stop here. Bye!

_kbh_ 4y ago

I dare say the people servicing the weapons in a war zone in Ukraine are going to be the Ukrainians. Ammo is coming from everywhere, either stock piles or other countries when appropriate. And to the Ukrainians this is altruistic, the Americans are handing over advanced weapons for free to help fight off an invading army. It doesn’t get much more altruistic than that.

trap_goes_hot 4y ago
No, the Ukrainians are not going to service radars, helicopters, drones, tanks that they have no idea about and were just given. Nothing is for free - and that is the point, it feeds the US war machine.
- onepointsixC 4y ago
  Except all of it was given for free. The tanks that the Ukrainians received were Soviet era ones which they can maintain themselves. The drone's maintenance costs are tiny compared to the acquisitions costs, and the mere dozen of HIMARS are cheap compared to the incredible amount of munitions they were given to fire them. Nothing you have stated has any relation to reality. The US will never make even a single percentage point in income from the maintenance from the tens of billions in weapons given - many of which were literal munitions.
- _kbh_ 4y ago
  > No, the Ukrainians are not going to service radars, helicopters, drones, tanks that they have no idea about and were just given. They are also given training including maintenance training on the weapon systems they are using. It's one of the reasons they haven't been given planes or their heavier systems (such as tanks). > Nothing is for free - and that is the point, it feeds the US war machine. It's free for the Ukrainians they are literally not paying, the Americans are getting great PR, and also free battle testing against real Russian targets. Additionally the Americans are getting to heavily deplete the Russian army without even having to use any of their own soldiers. It's a heaps good deal.
  - trap_goes_hot 4y ago
    Well, I've failed at getting my point across so I'll just stop here. Bye!