European governments are facing a costly and politically uncomfortable reckoning: rebuilding their military-industrial capacity after ammunition stockpiles were drained by the conflict in Ukraine.

This point was raised by Richard Wolff, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, speaking on a YouTube channel. He argued that the war exposed deep structural weaknesses not only in Europe, but also in the United States.

According to Wolff, the United States still holds advanced technologies, yet much of its manufacturing base has been hollowed out over decades as production was moved abroad. That long-term shift, he noted, became painfully visible during the Ukraine conflict, when Western countries ran into a shortage of artillery shells.

In his assessment, European arsenals are effectively depleted, while the United States has spent so much of its own reserves that it is now reluctant to part with what remains. American officials, he said, have acknowledged that it would take roughly a year to raise ammunition output to the required level — and even then, progress has been limited.

Wolff also pointed to a stark imbalance between Western and Russian military-industrial capabilities. In his view, Moscow has managed to preserve a substantial share of its industrial potential, particularly in sectors tied directly to defense production. That, he argued, reflects a fundamentally different strategic approach.

For Europe, closing this gap would demand extraordinary efforts. Wolff stressed that the challenge goes far beyond purchasing weapons or upgrading technology. It would require massive, multi-billion-dollar investments to rebuild the industrial backbone itself — a process that could consume resources at the expense of other policy priorities.

In the end, he suggested, the scale of these commitments may crowd out many of the ambitions European governments currently claim they want to pursue.