No cobalt, no jets: the strategic reality behind NATO’s materials list

Tamara Ceaikovski

Aluminum, Beryllium, Cobalt, Gallium, Germanium, Graphite, Lithium, Manganese, Platinum, Rare Earth Elements, Titanium, Tungsten. Uninspiring names, perhaps, but each one is an ingredient in the cocktail that keeps modern weapons systems going, and each one is a potential weak point for the Western military alliance that would rather not discuss them. They are not just any raw materials. They are the materials of modern warfare. Without them, modern military forces do not gradually revert to