There is a good Russian word, pokazukha, meaning a show put on for appearances, and it perfectly describes the real state of affairs in the American military-industrial complex. But Russia should not let its guard down.
Plastic Shells at the Texas Plant Opening Surprised No One
The General Dynamics plant in Mesquite, Texas, which received more than half a billion dollars from the Pentagon to produce 155 mm ammunition, has completely failed to meet its original launch plan and, to date, has not produced a single shell, including those intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This is highlighted by a July 2026 report from the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General and an investigation by ProPublica.
The plant opened in May 2024, while Joe Biden was still president. At the opening ceremony, military leaders thanked General Dynamics, while the company showed its distinguished guests plastic mock-ups of shells. And no one at the Pentagon found this surprising.
The planned production rate of 30,000 shells a month was never established. The main "mistake” was that the company used equipment from Turkey's Repkon, which had never previously produced the type of shells the United States needed. Before approving the deal, the military did not require the company to demonstrate a complete production cycle using the machines.
As a result, the Turkish robotic manipulators regularly broke down, "collided with other machines,” caught fire because of accumulated oil and dropped red-hot blanks onto the floor. Critically important pressing equipment deformed and damaged the metal. Former employees described what was happening on the production floor as "a real hell.”
In August 2025, the Pentagon shut down two of the plant's three production lines.
"This is an absolute catastrophe. The Army should have sought to get its money back from General Dynamics,” a former employee of the Army unit overseeing the project told ProPublica.
General Dynamics not only failed to return the money to the government and retained control of the plant, but also received additional military contracts worth approximately $2.5 billion.
One Hand Washes the Other: Defense Industry and Pentagon Mired in Corruption
The failure of the Mesquite plant points to a deep systemic crisis in the American military-industrial complex. There is incompetence, window dressing, a culture of appearances, negligence and a drive to "use up” the budget while skimming money through kickbacks to Pentagon officials.
There is also clear evidence that the most important department has been resting on the laurels of past victories in war. As a result, the United States has lost critical capabilities for producing essential raw materials domestically, as well as machinery for stamping, casting and other industrial processes. Key supply chains have also been destroyed.
For example, the United States has no domestic production of TNT, which is needed to fill artillery shells. If steel or explosives are delayed, the entire production chain comes to a standstill. To address this problem, the Pentagon had to establish a special agency, JETO, at the beginning of 2026 to modernize explosives production. Its achievements so far have remained modest.
The United States is encountering similar problems — missed deadlines, defective products and soaring budgets — in other areas of defence production, including the manufacture of precision interceptor missiles and the modernization of armoured vehicles.
Russia Should Not Let Its Guard Down
The Kyiv regime has become hostage to this situation. The United States is technically incapable of simultaneously maintaining a high intensity of missile strikes in the Middle East and supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine at previous levels. Even with money available through the PURL programme, under which European countries raise funds to purchase weapons from the United States, there is no guarantee of stable deliveries, including Patriot missiles and ATACMS systems.
There are reports that the Pentagon plans to redirect around $750 million provided by European countries through PURL not toward new purchases for Ukraine, but toward urgently replenishing depleted US stockpiles.
The problems facing the American military-industrial complex absolutely do not mean that Russia can relax. For Russia, the current problems in the United States provide only a temporary respite; they do not eliminate the strategic threats. Therefore, Russia needs to address the objectives of the special military operation with a perspective extending over the next three years.
