They are helping to push Russian troops towards their border, but they are emptying the arsenals of the NATO countries.
Produce more weapons and more ammunition. Faster. This is the message that the military leaders of the 50 countries that are materially supporting Ukraine took away from last week’s meeting at the US military base in Ramstein, Germany.
Western arms deliveries to Ukraine are helping kyiv push Russian troops toward its border, but they are emptying the arsenals of NATO countries and other allies.
The Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, announced at the end of the meeting in Ramstein that those responsible for weapons from these 50 countries will meet on September 28 in Brussels. At this meeting in the Belgian capital, they will discuss “how our armament industries can better equip future Ukrainian forces with the capabilities it needs.”
No one believes, despite the Ukrainian advance in recent weeks, that the war will end soon and everyone agrees to continue arming Ukraine.
act together
In addition to those deliveries of weapons to the troops of President Volodimir Zelensky, it is necessary to replenish arsenals that have been emptied. This is what the meeting at the end of the month will also deal with, “increasing the production of key capabilities and solving problems in supply chains, as well as increasing the interoperability of our systems”.
The 30 (soon 32 when Finland and Sweden join) NATO armies do not all have the same weapons, but they are compatible so they can act together and be armed with the same ammunition. The 155mm artillery shells, the most widely used by NATO and with which it is arming Ukraine, can be produced in the United States and used in Hungary or Denmark.
These holes in Western ammunition and weapons stockpiles were not seen early in the war because Ukraine used mostly Soviet-made weapons. Countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Romania still had, more than 30 years after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, material manufactured in the 80s of the 20th century and still operational.
Those arms and ammunition were the first that Ukraine received from the rest of Europe.
That didn’t last long. Already in spring the Europeans began to send Western weapons, especially individual weapons such as anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers and artillery. And with those pieces an ammunition that, at the rate that Ukraine consumes it, empties the arsenals.
projectiles
The European Union approved in July a financial package of 500 million euros to replenish in two years what had been emptied from the arsenals of its member states: anti-armor weapons, missiles, artillery pieces, ammunition, rifles, armored personnel carriers.
The biggest obstacle is not money but the inability of Western military industries to produce weapons and ammunition at the rate that Ukraine consumes it. NATO is not at war with Russia, he says, it only helps Ukraine. And therefore it has not put other manufacturers to produce military equipment.
One example US officials cited: The US has sent 800,000 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine. The only plant that manufactures them in the United States, in Pennsylvania, can make up to 14,000 a month. It would take four years and 9 months to replenish the arsenals.
Washington wants its European allies to contribute by increasing their own production. The United States will buy plants at home but also in other countries.
Despite these promises, in Europe there have been no moves to speed up production. Although in the European Commission they do see the need.
European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in July, when the 500 million package was approved, that “EU states have taken everything from their arsenals, from ammunition and light and heavy artillery to anti-tank and anti-military defense systems. passing through armored personnel carriers and tanks”. Without producing enough to replace that material, which will never come back from the Ukraine.
PB