As the federal shutdown on USA now exceeds the symbolic limit of 40 days, its effects are beginning to become visible in the production and delivery chains of Western weapons systems.
In the absence of adequate personnel and comprehensive parliamentary procedures in the US, contracts to export missiles and other US weapons systems remain pending due to the shutdown, causing resentment in European capitals that await them.
A senior State Department official who spoke to Axios speaks of a real “brake” for both allies and the American defense industry. He notes that today’s blockades “prevent the timely delivery of critical capabilities” to key partners as the war in Ukraine continues.
Among the systems affected are AMRAAM missiles, Aegis combat systems and HIMARS multiple missile launchers, targeting countries such as Denmark, Croatia and Poland. Some of this material, after first being handed over to allies, is then funneled into Ukraine, which adds to the strategic weight of the delays.
The problem is much more procedural than political. Under US arms export laws, any sale must pass congressional review. But much of the State Department staff tasked with preparing dossiers, briefing committees and monitoring notifications has been placed on mandatory unpaid leave. An official explains that in October the office responsible for arms sales was operating with only about a quarter of its usual staff.
Result: files pile up, signatures are delayed and contracts remain on paper, rather than being translated into actual deliveries.
In Washington, Republicans openly accuse Democrats of letting the situation drag on. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott argues the majority “blocks critical arms sales, even to NATO allies,” putting both the U.S. defense industry base and collective security at risk, he says.
In the same vein, Republican Senator James Reese, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sees this blockade as a “gift” to the US’s strategic adversaries. China and Russia, he reminds, “are not in shutdown”, while the needs of the Western allies remain meteoric.
Against the background of the war in Ukraine and the hard bargain with Beijing, the American shutdown no longer looks like another domestic policy against the Capitol: it is starting to translate into a tangible deficit of ammunition and weapons systems for the countries that are supposed to be erecting a wall against Russian ambitions.