Foreign contractor Airbus ignoring sanctions wants to sell weapons systems to U.S. military

OPINION:

Whatever you think of the war in Ukraine, is it too much to ask that the defense contractors that are cashing in do not continue business as usual with Ukraine’s invader, Russia?

This would not seem to be a heavy lift. The war is not universally popular in the U.S., and it does no good for those who support helping Ukraine if defense contractors violate the sanctions our government has established.

But that appears to be the case with Airbus. The plane and helicopter manufacturer, based in the Netherlands, is making refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. The company admitted in a recent letter that it is continuing to use titanium from Russia in the construction of the planes.

This violates sanctions established by the U.S. and its partners to punish Russia for starting this war. Airbus, which gets about half its titanium from Russia, argues that the sanctions do not matter, that they don’t dissuade Russia from attacking Ukraine and that it’s better to hold costs down by turning to cash-strapped Russia to supply the lightweight metal critical to aircraft manufacturing.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said in April 2022 that the company had been stockpiling titanium for nearly a decade — beginning when Russia took Crimea and did not see a need to violate sanctions in the short or medium term.

But beyond that, “we don’t think sanctions on imports will be appropriate,” he said. “This will be a small impact on Russia and would have large consequences on the rest of the countries and the industry. So we think the no-sanction policy is the most meaningful one.”

Airbus also declared last November that it was “decoupling from Russia when it comes to titanium” and would do so “in a matter of months, not years.”

According to a letter from a coalition opposing business-as-usual with Russia, Airbus continues to buy titanium from Russia, and it looks like the Air Force has already gotten skittish about this.

The Air Force has reduced its order of the currently used KC-Y planes from 140 to 75 and is looking ahead to a new generation of tankers to be purchased in the 2030s. Airbus had hoped to produce at least 100 of the current generation of tankers to justify hiring 1,300 more workers to produce the planes in Alabama and Georgia, but the 75-plane order makes it economically infeasible for Airbus to do its manufacturing in the U.S.

Russia sells little in the way of intellectual property. It designs almost nothing. Its web presence is a shadow of those of countries half its size and population. Its manufacturing base is unstable and not known for quality.

Russia’s core sources of revenue from the outside world are energy and raw materials, which means it is vulnerable to sanctions if they are honored by all relevant participants. At the very least, we should expect that those that wish to sell multibillion-dollar military assets to the U.S. government would see the wisdom in honoring its sanctions.

Alas, that is not the case with Airbus. Its CEO says the “most meaningful” approach is to defy U.S. policy and sanctions and continue to purchase titanium from Russia. Titanium is an important part of airplanes, to be sure. Its strength-to-weight ratio makes it ideal for everything from wings to landing gear.

But it is available outside Russia, and it is not unreasonable to expect companies trying to do business with the United States in the defense sector to not do things that compromise American foreign policy goals.

Those who believe the U.S. is right to help Ukraine can’t overlook that a vendor seeking a large contract is ignoring the wishes of the customer and financing a war effort against that customer in the process.

Those who don’t believe the U.S. is right to help Ukraine should be concerned as well. A foreign vendor that ignores our defense needs is not the kind of company we should do business with under any circumstances. Such a company can’t be relied upon. It can’t be trusted.

There should be some decoupling all right — between the U.S. Department of Defense and the vendors willing to thwart our defense goals to improve their bottom line.

• Brian McNicoll, a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Virginia, is a former senior writer for The Heritage Foundation and former director of communications for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.