“It has to be produced before it can be delivered”

Ukrainian soldiers fire a French Caesar self-propelled howitzer

Ukraine has a requirement of up to 300,000 artillery shells per month.

(Photo: dpa)

Brussels, Berlin The EU countries want to boost the production of ammunition in order to be able to support Ukraine in the longer term. “The support must continue,” said Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) on Wednesday at an informal meeting with his NATO counterparts in Stockholm. And ammunition plays a central role in this. At the same time, however, it is also a matter of replenishing the portfolios of the European partners. In an emergency, the Bundeswehr would only have supplies for a few days.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov estimates that his army alone needs 250,000 to 300,000 artillery shells a month to be able to effectively resist the Russian attackers. That is roughly the amount of artillery ammunition that meets the NATO standard of 155 millimeters that is produced in Europe every year.

“The EU is not prepared for a high-intensity conflict,” agrees EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. The production capacity, which was shut down in reliance on the peace dividend, is almost fully utilized, and the delivery time for new orders is one year.

According to the Brussels Commission, there are 15 ammunition manufacturers for the NATO standard caliber in the EU, spread over eleven countries. There are also three producers of grenades with a caliber of 152 millimeters. This ammunition is required for weapon systems of Soviet design, many of which are in use in Ukraine.

The procurement will not fail because of the money, emphasized Pistorius. The EU has already mobilized 3.6 billion euros in support for Ukraine from the so-called European Peace Facility, said the German Defense Minister.

procurement of ammunition

Together with his NATO counterparts, he wanted to discuss the proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to provide one billion euros from EU funds for ammunition. Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas even brought a sum of four billion euros into play and campaigned for coordinated European procurement.

Boris Pistorius (left) and Oleksiy Resnikov

In order to be able to support the Ukraine in this decisive phase of the war, the first thing to do in the coming weeks is to look into the Allies’ depots to see what can still be done without.

(Photo: dpa)

However, procurement will take time, even if the industry increases its capacities as promised, said Pistorius: “There are many technical requirements for ammunition that nobody can override.”

In order to support Ukraine in this decisive phase of the war, the first thing to do in the coming weeks is to look at the Allies’ depots to see what can still be done without.

However, Internal Market Commissioner Breton dampened expectations: “The member states will only be willing to deliver more ammunition to Ukraine if they can be sure that they will receive replacements in a timely manner.” It must therefore be a matter of building a “war economy”.

However, Pistorius did not want to adopt this term. A war economy would mean subordinating everything else to the production of weapons and ammunition – and that would be a “fatal signal,” said the SPD politician. He assumes that the armaments industry is interested in making a profit and will therefore ramp up production as quickly as possible.

>> Read here: Dramatic lack of ammunition in Europe – this is how the EU wants to boost production

Then you have to look at which framework agreements with European armaments manufacturers could be used to support the industry in ramping up capacities. The German side is prepared to expand these contracts. But: “Just because we all order more, there is not more,” said Pistorius. “It has to be produced before it can be delivered.”

1.1 billion euros for ammunition procurement

Framework agreements stipulate, for example, how much ammunition, fuel or maintenance services the Bundeswehr will purchase in specified periods. As the Federal Ministry of Defense announced in December 2022 in response to a question from the CDU politician Jens Lehmann, there are 24 such framework agreements between ammunition manufacturers and the Bundeswehr Procurement Office. Orders have already been placed from 17 of the contracts.

Read more about ammunition and procurement

According to the Ministry of Defence, 763 million euros were earmarked for ammunition procurement in the budget for the past year, and the budget for the current year is around 1.1 billion euros. In addition, the Budget Committee had increased the ammunition budget planned for the next two years by a total of one billion euros.

However, the necessary requirement for the procurement of ammunition is estimated at 20 billion euros. Germany is obligated to NATO to maintain ammunition stocks for 30 days across all branches of the armed forces by 2031 in order to be able to withstand a “high-intensity battle”.

More: Longest battle of the Ukraine war: “Bahmut will fall – it just depends on how it happens”

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