The conflict in Ukraine has revealed problems with war-related industrial production in the West that need to be fixed, US Senator Jim Risch of Idaho has said.
Risch is the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He made the remark during a NATO event in Washington, DC on Wednesday that was hosted jointly by the US government and several think tanks.
“I think all of us have been stunned by the weakness and the holes in our industrial production when it comes to defense,” Risch told the NATO Public Forum. “We’re going to have to do more.”
Risch noted that all members of the US-led bloc had agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense back in 2014. Some states have not yet lived up to that commitment, “and frankly, now that this has happened, 2% probably isn’t enough,” he added, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The senator from Idaho spoke as part of a panel called ‘Strengthening the Transatlantic Bond’, which also included Czech…