The US government will send Ukraine some more old stock, but on Monday, security and international relations expert Mark Sleboda estimated that only $14 billion will reach Ukraine in actual military weapons and equipment.
“While this bill sends military equipment to Ukraine,” US President Joe Biden said in February while trying to get Republicans on board with the bill. “It spends the money right here in the United States of America in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, where artillery shells are made.”
The aid bill will undoubtedly be a boon for weapon manufacturers in the United States. On a Tuesday investors call, Raytheon COO Chris Calio said that the company was “encouraged by the progress on the Ukraine supplemental bill,” noting that two-thirds of the aid package is “addressable with [Raytheon] products.”
That will be little solace to the Ukrainian soldiers forcibly conscripted and sent to the front line. Nor will it be any solace to the Ukrainian generals, who are dealing with ill-equipped and untrained soldiers who refuse orders and participate in unauthorized retreats in increasing numbers.
Americans have been waiting since the 1980s for “trickle-down economics” to bestow benefits onto regular people. It remains to be seen how long the average Ukrainian soldier will have to wait to feel the benefits of “trickle-down war-nomics.”