Having NATO/the EU pay for US arms is just fine.
From analysis I've read (jesus this shit is fucked)
- Euro Countries are transferring the first wave of slightly-down-model Patriots to Ukraine and getting IOUs for new latest gen Patriots.
- These IOUs are credited with the trade-in value of the transferred Patriots, but there is cost a delta. RayRay is minimizing the cost delta. The US is not paying for this minimization directly. They are doing some ratfucked horse trading on other RTX contracts and either paying bonuses that might not be deserved, approving contract payments on milestones not yet reached, or not leveraging penalties for failures.
- the Trade-in cost is being paid for by Ukraine indirectly; the financial aid commitments are being rerouted or NATO countries that need to up their budgets to hit 2% will get the option to pay the NATOgeld.
- The delta cost is likewise a direct GDP meeting contribution.
So if you are say The Netherlands, you can give up some patriot batteries, get maximum trade-in credit to apply to the purchase of batteries that you were going to need to pay to upgrade, and save money in the long term. Additionally you save on maintenance expenses as you aren't needing to maintain those batteries, just wait for the new ones.
In exchange for saving this money, the cost is that you are short on your AAD if something does pop off between now and your new systems arriving.
Also lest we think that isn't enough lying for a politician:
The US is handling the minor upgrades.
There is also a spat of net-new systems that will be built for Ukraine and arrive in months-to-years. These are being paid for by military aid for Ukraine budgets.
tl;dr: Fuck I wish I had bought more RTX stock. Fuck. FUCK.
