It’s hard to appreciate the iceberg beneath all the products and services one can buy. Thus, for our plugs to work there are high and low voltage networks throughout the country; people trained in universities; regulation; planning; a lot of Tesla (the real one, not the car); Fourier transforms and gigantic measurement and collection systems. There are also complex logistics and supplies supporting hospitals, factories, hotels and hair removal centers. Supply is the photosynthesis that nourishes products and services and explains, in part, why some countries with sun and sand attract tourists and others do not, or why some countries produce machinery, cars or startups and others do not.
The more technologically advanced and large a sector is, the more complex is the system that supports it, it is logical, an amoeba is not the same as a bear. In the world of defense, supply is also decisive, so much so that there is an old military saying that says: “The fry discuss strategy, the professionals discuss logistics.” It has always been this way: in the pre-modern age, provisioning determined the size of armies, the nature of campaigns and the objectives to be conquered. Armies could only transport a month and a half worth of supplies, as the transporters also consumed what they carried. For this reason, armies looted supplies when operating in enemy territory. The more professional an army was, the more efficient it was at scavenging flour, grinding it, and making bread. It was provisioning, not population or wealth, that limited Roman and medieval armies.
Technology, in turn, affects provisioning: the Mongols had raiding parties in which each soldier rode several horses, including suckling mares, which ate grass and fed their soldier their blood and milk. Sailing ships also allowed for very efficient provisioning. The train made it possible to transport supplies in a massive way without consuming them, which is why colossal armies sprouted in World War I. In Ukraine, US production, supply and logistics will largely determine the expected counteroffensive.
Today defense technology platforms are the most complex technological systems on the planet, you just have to look at the development and maintenance cost they have; so are their provisioning ecosystems, which is something the Russians are finding out to their chagrin.
Thus, when Europe proclaims that it must have autonomy in security, it is announcing that it must further develop its ecosystem of companies, professionals, regulation, incentives and technology associated with defense. Achieving it will be long and difficult, but not forever. It will also be difficult to evaluate the progress in achieving it, since, just like when cooking rice, we will only know if it turned out well at the end.
For this reason, all this will have to be managed diligently, professionally and carefully monitoring progress. We will also have to equip ourselves with large reserves of supplies, since in a crisis these will determine the ability to face it. Let’s do it; if not, it is possible that in the future we will pay a bloody price and that, therefore, our grandchildren describe us as inept and irresponsible. If it happened, they would do it for good reason. To claim otherwise would be like hoping that Pontius Pilate can be remembered as a good provincial administrator of the Roman Empire.
