Russia and Ukraine

[The Grand Nudger]

Russian arms export peaked in 2011, matching us round for round, tank for tank, plane for plane. France is now the second largest weapons exporter, china is third. What the war in ukraine did was prevent russia from selling weapons because it needed those weapons, while also demonstrating the design flaws in said weapons. Today, the only weapons export title russia can legitimately claim, is being the single largest provider of weapons...to ukraine. It's a homecoming. While the russians may not be able to do shit with those tanks ukraine's engineering sector is still top notch - so the russians find themselves being fired upon in their little holes by vehicles they'd abandon the week prior.

Even now, with the outcome of the war unknown, western arms manucturers are investing alot of money and setting up licensed production of western arms in ukraine. Ifvs mbts tube and rocket artillery from the us, france, uk, and germany will be produced in ukraine post war, to suck up the lost russian arms market. A cheap toasters selling point is that it's still a toaster, and it turns out that russian weapons are just cheap. The ruined cities look like proof of concept, but you can take apart a city brick by brick with hammers faster than russian artillery has been able to tear them down, and at a lower price point.