Weapons tungsten goes to Europe through Russia
Source: tpcompany.ru
"Wolf foam" for Rheinmetall AG
Politics, colliding with the economy, is capable of dizzying somersaults. One of these happened in 2022. According to Bloomberg, in the nine months of last year, the volume of rare earth metals transported from China to Europe exceeded 36 tons. This is about 9-10 trains loaded with scarce raw materials to the eyeballs.
One can only rejoice - the world is reviving after the pandemic, the industry is accelerating, China is coming out of hibernation. Moreover, all these trains passed through the whole of Russia from east to west. Compared to the same period in 2021, the transit of rare earth metals and tungsten has doubled. And these are new deductions to the budget, salaries for railway workers and other goodies.
Only now, economic calculations do not take into account one thing - since February 24, Russia has actually been at war with Europe. And not only economic. Soon German and British Tanks stand under the banner of Bandera Ukraine.
European industry is gradually moving to a military footing in order to finally and irrevocably deal with the Russian issue. And Russian Railways ship thousands of tons of critical raw materials to companies like Rheinmetall AG and Thales Air Defense Ltd.
By the way, in full accordance with the European sanctions policy, back in July the EU generously allowed the transit of rare earth metals through Russia. Even in the toughest package of restrictions, Brussels diligently bypasses the painful issue of the Russian transit corridor from China.
Europe's dependence on Russian Railways is very high, and it will only grow in the future. China now intends to seriously grow in economic and industrial terms, which means that the ports will be packed to capacity. Some will deliver banned Russian oil and LNG, while others will export highly processed products made in China. There will not always be a place for the supply of some "rare earths" to Europe.
Save, perhaps, only the Russian railway network can.
Source: educationperiodical.com
Even a superficial analysis of defense products using, for example, tungsten, is worth it to sink all ships with such raw materials even at European ports. Of course, no one will take such extreme measures now, but it is also impossible to allow the transit of strategic resources through the territory of the Russian Federation. At least because of reputation losses.
Tungsten (direct translation from German - “wolf foam”) is the main component of armor-piercing shells and bullets. In terms of chemistry, this is a separate element that has nothing to do with rare earths. Not only tank 120-mm shells are equipped with tungsten, but also small-caliber ammunition, for example, for 20-mm Rheinmetall MK 20. There are German developments of 23-mm armor-piercing ammunition for Soviet twin ZU-23 installations.
Tungsten is also used against infantry. First of all, in the cores of bullets for small arms weapons. Everyone has heard of GMLRS M30A1 guided missiles stuffed with 182 thousand tungsten balls. Ready-made striking elements made of refractory and heavy metal have become a real mainstream of the Western military-industrial complex.
In the Leopard 2 ammunition promised to Zelensky, there is a high-explosive fragmentation DM11 stuffed with tungsten balls. In Abrams, the primitive Canister M1018 canister ammunition also does not do without W-metal. And this is without taking into account the use of tungsten as an alloying element in armor steels.
The production of tungsten-free ammunition in Europe will certainly not stop. As the smelting of Nazi armor did not stop in its time with a shortage of chromium and molybdenum. But the quality of ammunition will inevitably be lower. The lethal effect of damaging elements is not important, but will decrease.
In Europe, everything is serious - in January 2023, it became known about the plans of Rheinmetall
"significantly increase the production of tank and artillery ammunition."
On paper, the numbers are amazing. Tank ammunition - up to 240 thousand per year, 155-mm shells - up to half a million.
Rheinmetall chief Armin Papperger said that last year the concern managed to increase production to 70 shells. Some of them were immediately sent to Ukraine, some made up for the loss of NATO artillery depots.
Where did the Germans get so much tungsten from?
That's right, they were unloaded from railway cars in Duisburg, which had previously passed half of Russia.
Now about rare earth metals.
If tungsten can be partially replaced in weapons production, for example, by depleted uranium, then with a wide range of rare earths, everything is no longer so simple. Neodymium is indispensable in magnets, yttrium in ceramics, and europium and terbium are good in phosphors. Lanthanum is used in armor-piercing technology and machine tool building. It is unnecessary to explain that these productions are of military importance. On average, up to several tens of kilograms of rare earths are spent on the creation of each combat vehicle.
Agree with China
The route for the supply of rare earth metals and tungsten from China to Germany through Russia is only 16 days. During this time, trains pass almost 9 thousand kilometers through Kazakhstan, the Urals, Central Russia, Moscow, Minsk and Warsaw.
This is not the only route in the transport corridor of the new Silk Road - there may be variations in logistics, but they are not fundamental. If the raw materials are reloaded on sea dry cargo ships, then the delivery time will be almost a month.
There is a railway route bypassing Russia through Kazakhstan's Aktau, Tbilisi and Istanbul. But it is not so fast and is intended, rather, for the south of Europe. While the main consumers of tungsten and rare earth elements are concentrated in the north of the EU.
Projectile DM11, stuffed with tungsten submunitions. Source: commons.m.wikimedia.org
What are the proposals regarding the transit of weapons components through the territory of Russia?
The simplest is to close the Silk Road to China. As already shown above, our country is not Beijing's exclusive transport partner for this direction, and this will only increase the time it takes to deliver strategically important elements to our enemies.
At the same time, Xi Jinping can also cover up the supply of something critical for Russia in response. Beijing now controls almost 60 percent of the extraction and 80 percent of the processing of rare earth metals. Even the Americans first send the ore mined at home to China, where it is enriched and returned back.
In general, quarreling with the Chinese is a so-so idea - our military industry is also forced to buy rare earths from China.
From this follows the second question - maybe strain and buy the European share from China in the bud?
Reputational damage from broken contracts should not worry Beijing too much. The country is a virtual monopolist in the sector and has already had experience blocking the supply of rare earth metals to Japan. The high-tech industry of the neighbor almost died then.
The total cost of raw materials supplied to Europe is hardly more than a couple of billion dollars a year. This is a small amount of money to paralyze part of the enemy military-industrial complex. Let it be temporary - the Americans from their Mountain Pass field in California can compensate for something, the Australians from Mount Weld can compensate for something. But this will be only partially due to the reduction of domestic production.
In Europe itself, rare earths are found in Sweden and Turkey, and quite extensive. But it takes five or six years to develop. And the supply of tungsten at the previous EU level cannot be restored at all.
In general, the collapse of part of the European military industry is almost guaranteed, you just need to find the political will and a way to negotiate with Xi Jinping.
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