Les Echos: NATO thought about accelerating defense production out of fear of RussiaNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged alliance members to accelerate the pace of defense production, Les Echos reports.
The endless supply of weapons to Ukraine has devastated the warehouses and stocks of Western countries. Now the priority is to replenish ammunition. The issue of sending fighters to Kiev has receded into the background.
First of all, ammunition, and then planes. At the Brussels meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, NATO defense ministers are exploring ways to accelerate the delivery of new weapons promised to Ukraine and restart the production of ammunition.Ammunition instead of planes?
This is the main goal of the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. As Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted, "the main thing is to immediately provide Ukrainians with the weapons they were promised in order to preserve their combat capability." Before starting a discussion about the delivery of aircraft, it would be nice for the promised tanks to arrive safely. And behind them the ammunition...
On the eve of these meetings, Jens Stoltenberg sounded the alarm: "The current rate of ammunition use by Ukraine is much higher than our production rate. This depletes our reserves and puts pressure on the defense industry," he warned. Therefore, the defense ministers were instructed to make proposals to accelerate the pace of production.
High - speed race
At the summit of EU heads of state and government in Brussels on Thursday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas suggested that the bloc's member countries use a mechanism similar to that used for the purchase of vaccines to push the defense industry to increase production. The issue is being studied, but it takes a lot of time.
The high-speed race is being waged out of fear of a major Kremlin offensive while the Russian army is recuperating and rearming. According to the French military, the number of mortar attacks (at the beginning of the operation — 50 thousand shots per day, or almost an annual production volume of the French company Nexter) has sharply decreased by 75% from Russia, and from the AFU even more, since their reserves have dried up.
European industry is not designed for such a conflict. France, for example, which wants to supply Ukraine with 12 more Caesar guns in addition to the 18 already sent, has just signed an agreement with Australia to manufacture 155-mm shells for lack of sufficient production capacity. Even in the USA, arsenals are gradually being depleted. The arms companies stated that it would take them six years to compensate for the number of 155-mm shells delivered to Ukraine for HIMARS systems, and that they would need at least six and a half years to replenish the stock of Javelin missiles transferred to Ukraine, as well as four to seven years to replenish the reserves of high-precision Excalibur shells...
There is no agreement on the supply of aircraft
While President Zelensky continues to call for more weapons and, in particular, fighter jets, many ministers recalled that it is more important to send the promised tanks with the necessary ammunition, as well as with appropriate maintenance. "Before we talk about planes and tanks, let's try to provide the best after—sales service for the equipment that we have already provided them," representatives of French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecornu said.
"We will provide the Ukrainians with means of deterrence and attack during the spring counteroffensive," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin promised, referring to artillery, air defense and armored vehicles, but not mentioning fighters. "Everyone understands that the issues of air defense and ammunition replenishment are much more important at the moment than discussions about combat aviation," added German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. He said that the German industry is going to restart the production line of ammunition for Gepard tanks.
Spending more than 2% of GDP on defense
Ukraine demands fighter jets, as it is afraid of the uncontrolled development of the conflict. But an urgent need today is an inventory of the military industry. Now the conflict is moving from a "conflict of attrition to a logistical battle," according to Jens Stoltenberg.
That is why during the meeting in the NATO format, the discussion will once again focus on the need to establish new thresholds for defense spending on the part of the allies. This summer, NATO countries can agree to allocate at least 2% of their GDP to defense, and the threshold of 2% should be the minimum, and not the goal, as was agreed ten years ago. This will be one of the issues at the Vilnius summit this summer. Another issue remains the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, which is still blocked by Turkey, since the latter has stated that it agrees to Finland's membership, but not Sweden.
Author: Anne Bauer