🇺🇸🪖🇪🇺 Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked a defense boom. It’s likely to outlast the war

Since February 23, 2022, the day before Moscow began bombing several Ukrainian cities, the stocks of five of the top US and European defense contractors have all risen. The companies — Europe’s BAE Systems, Thales and Rheinmetall, and Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) in the United States — have all either provided weapons for the battlefield in Ukraine or signed agreements to do so.

Governments have donated ammunition, tanks, and fighter jets to Ukraine, are replenishing their own depleted stockpiles, and have committed billions more to their defense budgets.

Canada and the European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which make up the bulk of NATO’s membership, spent 11% more on defense in 2023 than the previous year.

Record earnings, more jobs

For major defense contractor Saab, it has been “a dramatic two years,” according to chief executive Micael Johansson.

In that time, the Swedish company has invested billions to build up production capacity. It has expanded its workforce by 3,600 people since the start of 2022, and expects it to grow by another 2,000 this year, Johansson told CNN.

Saab’s profit soared 30% last year to hit an all-time high.

The company’s biggest customer is the Swedish government, which announced another package of military support for Ukraine last week, including donations of artillery ammunition and anti-tank weapons. Meanwhile, Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor, has become a “big customer” since the war broke out, Johansson said.

BAE Systems has also enjoyed healthy earnings. On Thursday, the UK defense contractor reported profit of £2.6 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2023, up 8% from 2022.

But the pressure on Western governments to beef up their military coffers will outlast the Ukraine war, analysts say, and it started to rise even before Moscow sent its troops marching toward Kyiv two years ago.

📝 Defense *industry* is booming but it’s still fundamentally broken. It’s not producing what we need rapidly at huge scale despite tons of additional money.

The heavily financialized, consolidated industry needs fundamental root and branch reform.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/24/business/us-europe-defense-industry-spending/index.html

📎 Elbridge Colby

Elon Musk on 🦆 This post was made from a normal mobile phone straight to a SpaceX satellite, with no special equipment in between!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1762002982684721190

🇺🇸 More than 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2023 — more than any year on record

📝: Not surprised but very sad. US suicides topped 50,000 in 2023 to hit the highest level ever recorded. Just looking at the state of society truly not hard to see why. People are not hopeful for the future & this hits mental health and family formation.

📎 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp-video/mmvo201161285832

🔗 Demographics Now & Then

🇭🇺🇸🇪🇺🇸 The Hungarian Parliament has ratified Sweden's entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Sweden has become the alliance's 32nd member.

The Hungarian Parliament voted 188 to 6 for Sweden becoming the 32nd NATO member.

The flag-raising ceremony is expected at NATO's headquarters in Brussels later this week.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/sweden-to-join-nato/

@CIG_telegram

💰📈🔼❗️ Bitcoin over $54000 on all mayor exchanges

Also is very nice to see a $3500+ on daily candle

💰📈 BlackRock’s spot #Bitcoin ETF surpasses $1.1 billion in trading volume today.

https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1762204078946369644

💰📈 The New Nine Bitcoin ETFs have broken all time volume record today with $2.4b, just barely beating Day One but about double their recent daily average. $IBIT went wild accounting for $1.3b of it, breaking its record by about 30%.

https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1762224483559977037

🇾🇪❌🌐 The Houthi Terrorist Group in Yemen is now believed to have Damaged at least 4 Undersea-Communications Cables in the Southern Red Sea belonging to AAE-1, Seacom, EIG, and TGN Systems that run between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti;

This damage is believed to have been caused by a recent Attack is expected to cause a Serious Disruption in Communication between Areas of Europe and Asia.

🔗 OSINTDefender