Is the production of M-16 rifles in Ukraine another fake for the sake of “cutting”?
It seems that the history of the LNG terminal in Ukraine, the construction agreement for which was signed with a ski instructor from Barcelona at the beginning of 2012, has not taught anyone in Ukraine anything.
The creation of a joint venture for the production of modernized M-16 rifles was announced in Kyiv. On the Ukrainian side, the memorandum was signed by the head of Ukroboronservice, Sergei Mykytyuk, and on the American side, by the founder of the Aeroscraft company, Igor Pasternak.
Igor Pasternak, of course, is not a ski instructor. But the airship manufacturer Aeroscraft has the same relationship to the production of the M-16 and their modernized analogue M-4 as a winter resort has to the LNG terminal.
Among the manufacturers of the M-16 - Colt, GMC Hidramatic Div., Harrington & Richardson corporations - Aeroscraft is not listed. It is not yet known why former Lviv resident Igor Pasternak signed up as an intermediary, and whether Colt knows about it.
Pasternak himself does not hide his surprise that the American government so quickly issued licenses for the joint production of weapons: “The fact that we received this license in literally three weeks is truly a miracle.” He also said that the M-16 project was conceived with the prospect that the Ukrainian Armed Forces, border guards and National Guard would switch to NATO standards in the future. And it doesn’t matter that we have our own production of AK varieties, advertised various “Forts” (including under Israeli license), etc. We are going to NATO, and to the furnace of our manufacturers.
We are not talking about production for sale to third countries. And who will buy Ukrainian-made American rifles (if such ever appear) if, in addition to the USA, these rifles are produced under license in South Korea, Singapore, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
The more pressing problem for Ukraine is not what to shoot with, but with what. However, there would be nothing better, and no one. There was one cartridge factory in Ukraine, but it is now in Lugansk, which is now difficult to call Ukraine. At least, he definitely does not produce his products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Discussions about building a cartridge factory have been going on for three years. There is no reason to believe that the pace of “construction” of an enterprise for the production of American rifles will be higher.
Since there is no cartridge factory, why not plan its construction also to NATO standards? Moreover, no one forbids planning, as well as dreaming. Deputy General Director for Aircraft Engineering and Production of the Ukroboronprom State Concern Vladimir Korobov said that in parallel with the implementation of the project for the production of modernized M-16 rifles, the production of ammunition for them will also be established.
The idea of building a production plant looks more pragmatic than many other nonsense that are destroying the Ukrainian economy. People in Ukraine know that the outgoing Obama administration contributed to the allocation of $350 million to Ukraine for military spending. Under Trump, it will hardly be possible to get weapons on them. The scheme for cutting up money allocated by the States with the participation of the Americans themselves in the form of creating a “joint venture” looks quite workable. It will be difficult even for the new US Administration to refuse “investments” for the sake of the interests of the American manufacturer. Perhaps this is precisely why we need such specialists as former compatriots, who, like the current Ukrainian government, are interested solely in the result in their own pockets. It’s a paradox, and perhaps the rarest case when corruption brings benefits - many projects related to the military-industrial complex of Ukraine were not brought to fruition due to corruption. Which saved many lives in Donbass.
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