Commodities and Futures News

NATO calls for common standards in push to boost defence production

2023.06.14 17:58


© Reuters. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference on the day of a meeting of the Alliance defence ministers, in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman

By Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray

Brussels (Reuters) – NATO must work harder to set common standards for weapons and ammunitions, its chief said on Wednesday, as the alliance tries to boost defence production amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive likely to deplete Western military stocks even further.

Announcing a Defence Production Action Plan designed to “rapidly address shortfalls in our stocks”, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the plan also aimed to enhance the interoperability in the alliance’s munitions and equipment.

The NATO chief warned in February that Kyiv was burning through artillery shells much faster than the West could produce them. But a lack of common standards among the various manufacturers has hampered the flow of munitions supplies.

“Standardization’s a core responsibility for NATO, we have always worked hard on that,” Stoltenberg said. “But since ammunition, weapons are constantly developed, refined, that sometimes undermines their interoperability. So therefore we have to actually do more.”

While NATO enforces standards for rounds fired by small arms such as assault rifles, enabling troops from all allies to use each others’ munitions, it is not so easy for artillery shells.

Although some large NATO countries have agreed on certain standards for the 155mm rounds used by howitzers, additional calculations are often needed to hit a target with the required precision, experts say.

Stoltenberg was speaking ahead of a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday and Friday that, for the first time, will include talks with the heads of some 20 of the world’s leading defence companies.

The discussions will focus on how to boost the production of what NATO calls “battle-decisive” ammunitions, which include the 155mm artillery shells that Ukrainian howitzers fire thousands rounds of per day.

It also includes missiles for air defence systems such as Patriot or NASAMS and precision guided deep-strike ammunitions, missiles with a range of hundreds of kilometres such as the British Storm Shadow.

NATO already has a joint procurement programme for 155mm shells worth one billion dollars in total that allies can join but the alliance aims to fill stocks more extensively.

Stoltenberg said he expected ministers on Friday to agree new targets for the stockpiling of battle-decisive ammunitions, after an announcement he made in February.

“What we saw was that the existing capability targets which we have for each and every ally… were too low,” he said, adding that this kind of munitions was perhaps the one where NATO faced the most important shortfalls.

Stoltenberg did not give any figures. Stockpiling targets for ammunitions are, for security reasons, one of the alliance’s best-kept secrets.

(Additional reporting Dominique Vidalon, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 98,141.29 4.21%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,475.94 2.18%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 0.999561 0.08%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.28 1.86%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 706.71 3.34%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 195.89 2.29%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.33084 3.20%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.03%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,475.57 2.35%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.912002 1.58%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.256148 1.53%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 40.73 4.06%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 24.56 2.56%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.95 5.31%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 4,132.22 2.22%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000023 2.76%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 4.48 0.49%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 97,890.23 4.23%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.312726 1.95%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.384172 3.29%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 7.42 2.09%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,474.56 2.15%
hyperliquid
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 28.19 0.43%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 465.43 0.45%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.51 0.96%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 13.90 0.20%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 108.73 1.62%
bitget-token
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 5.60 14.17%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000019 2.03%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,668.37 2.24%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 5.49 0.73%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 0.999549 0.02%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 374.48 0.07%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 11.29 4.83%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.10%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.59 1.91%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.516441 2.56%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.158534 1.58%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.052204 6.03%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 1.26 5.36%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 27.56 1.33%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 7.56 1.57%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 514.75 4.72%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 196.35 4.93%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 24.89 2.10%
mantra-dao
MANTRA (OM) $ 3.77 0.33%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.36 1.10%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.04%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.800479 0.01%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 5.34 3.02%