NATO to increase military stocks due to empty reserves
2023.02.13 03:13
NATO to increase military stocks due to empty reserves
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – As allies attempt to restore sustainable arms supplies to Kyiv and their own militaries after a year in crisis mode, NATO is expected to ask its members to increase their ammunition stocks, which have been severely depleted by the war in Ukraine.
As officials considered wars of attrition with large-scale artillery battles to be a thing of the past, many NATO nations failed to meet the alliance’s stockpiling targets even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2014.
However, Western inventories have been depleted and supply chains’ efficiency, speed, and manpower have been exposed by the rapidity of deliveries to Ukraine, where Kyiv’s troops are firing up to 10,000 artillery shells daily. A European diplomat stated to Reuters, “Some countries would run out of ammunition in days if Europe were to fight Russia.”
According to a NATO official who spoke with Reuters on the condition of anonymity, an extraordinary survey of the remaining ammunition stocks has just been completed.
The official stated, “Those NATO (munitions targets) that we set, and each ally has a specific target, were not being met for the most part (before the war in Ukraine).”
According to the source, NATO is likely to raise the target levels for their members’ ammunition reserves because the conflict in Ukraine is making the stockpiles even smaller.
The NATO official stated, “I would be absolutely gobsmacked if the targets…were not increased.”
It is highly classified how many rounds remain in Western military inventories. The NATO stockpiling targets, which are unique to each member state and one of the alliance’s most closely guarded secrets, are the same.
In general, NATO requires each ally to provide specific capabilities that the alliance can use in the event of conflict.
This could, for instance, necessitate a single armored division consisting of 10,000 to 30,000 troops that is fully armed, armed, and able to fight at a certain intensity for a certain amount of time.
Taking into account all of these factors, the nation will need to supply a certain amount of ammunition, tanks, howitzers, and whatever else is required to meet NATO’s requirements.
Before the invasion, a defense source stated that Germany alone was 20 billion euros ($21 billion) short of the NATO target. A request for confirmation was made, but the German defense ministry did not immediately respond.
Battle-decisive munitions like 155-millimeter shells for howitzers, HIMARS missiles, and ammunition for air defense systems like IRIS-T, Patriot, and Gepard, all of which are heavily utilized by Ukrainian troops, are, according to the NATO official, the most lacking.
When NATO leaders meet for a summit in Lithuania in the middle of July, they are expected to make decisions about the goals for stockpiling.
The war also brought to light the lack of industrial capacity necessary to quickly increase production, as a result of numerous production lines disappearing after decades of decreasing government orders.
In advance of the one-year anniversary of what Russia refers to as its “special military operation” in Ukraine, NATO defense ministers will discuss the matter in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday in front of dozens of Western leaders who will be attending the Munich Security Conference.
France and the United States of America have both begun to put pressure on defense companies to increase production. The New York Times reported on January 24 that Washington intends to increase its monthly production goal for artillery rounds from 14,400 prior to the war to 90,000.
According to the State Department and the Pentagon, the United States has provided Kyiv with approximately $30 billion worth of arms, including more than one million 155mm rounds, since the war began. The United States is the largest military donor to Ukraine.
In July of last year, President Emmanuel Macron instructed France’s military contractors to devise a “war economy” strategy to accelerate production of everything from howitzers to munitions.
Although French officials declined to provide a specific number for the production of munitions, Paris has placed an order for approximately 2 billion euros worth of munitions for 2023, of which approximately 1.1 billion euros will be delivered this year.
This includes 10,000 155-millimeter shells from Nexter Systems, France’s sole large-caliber ammunition contractor. “Nexter was sleeping peacefully. “Now they are awake,” a French military official stated. The war economy is beginning to produce results. Military officials claim that the production time for munitions has begun to decrease from nine to three months.
Previously constructed in two years, the Caesar howitzer is now produced in 18 months. Collaboration among allies is essential. Nexter will be able to manufacture 155mm shells thanks to an agreement between France and Australia that requires Canberra to provide gunpowder, which is not produced in France. By the end of March, Ukraine will receive the first few thousand. A French official stated, “We are looking with other countries to see how we can replicate this kind of model.”
Other nations, on the other hand, are trailing behind. Days after the invasion, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a special fund of 100 billion euros to modernize the military. However, little progress has been made in replenishing the arms and munitions that were rushed to Kyiv.
Hans Christoph Atzpodien, the head of the Association of the German Security and Defence Industry, stated, “We did not receive any significant orders until the end of the previous year.”
“In spite of the special fund of 100 billion euros, the defense ministry managed shortages all the way through 2022. “Neither the special fund nor the defense budget had enough money for the purchase of munitions,” he continued.
The head of the defense committee in the German parliament and ally of Scholz’s coalition, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, described it as a “lost year” and lamented the lack of foresight in equipment reorganization.
However, some German arms manufacturers are getting ready.
Rheinmetall, which is probably best known for making the Leopard 2 tank’s 120mm gun, said it was ready to increase production of 155mm artillery shells from 60,000 to 70,000 in 2022 to 450,000 to 500,000 per year. According to CEO Armin Papperger, Rheinmetall would become the largest manufacturer of this ammunition as a result. Additionally, it is in talks with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:), which constructs multiple HIMARS rocket launchers in order to set up a production line in Germany.
After London provided Kyiv with 30 AS90 big artillery guns in January, opposition has grown even in Britain, which has appeared to be one of Ukraine’s main suppliers. Despite the fact that nothing had been done to replace them, defense policy chief John Healey of the main opposition Labour Party told Reuters that this represented one third of Britain’s entire supply.
He went on to say, “We need a stockpile strategy that deals with the requirement to continue supporting Ukraine while also restocking our own forces for the future.” A spokesperson for the defense ministry stated that efforts were being made to quickly replace the AS90.
There is a worldwide shortage of semiconductors, some raw materials, and a lack of highly skilled workers that make it difficult to increase defense production. According to the NATO official, ammunition production had become “quite artisanal” after the Cold War. It lacks a lot of depth and has taken on an Amazon-like quality, sort of just-in-time quality. It costs a lot to retrofit that.”
In addition, defense managers have been reluctant to make significant investments in additional production lines unless they have firm orders, which they prefer to be spread out over a longer period of time. The NATO official stated that the alliance had been attempting to address these issues for a number of years by bringing together groups of allies to negotiate multinational contracts, and he anticipated that several of these contracts would be signed at the Brussels meeting.
However, it will be a long time before inventory levels return to normal. The NATO official stated, “I don’t necessarily think that within the next year our stockpile levels will increase massively.” The Ukraine will receive any additional stocks we have.”
