NATO Secretary General welcomes contracts worth 2.4 billion euros to strengthen ammunition stockpiles
At their meeting in Paris this week, NATO Allies and partners in the Land Battle Decisive Munitions framework drove forward efforts to increase ammunition stocks. In the run-up to this meeting, the NATO Support and Procurement Agency put framework contracts and orders into place for hundreds of thousands of pieces of key ammunition. These contracts, estimated at 2.4 billion euros – including 1 billion euros in firm orders – will deliver a wide variety of critical munition types such as 155mm artillery, anti-tank guided missiles and main battle tank ammunition. The first deliveries under these contracts are scheduled to start towards the end of 2023.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “NATO has tried and tested structures for joint procurement – and they are delivering. I welcome Allies’ commitment to making major new investments in ammunition. Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine has reminded us that a war of attrition becomes a battle of logistics. Robust munitions supplies are essential to ensuring we can keep supporting Ukraine, while protecting every inch of NATO territory. This also provides a strong demand signal to industry across the Alliance to ramp up production.”
NATO’s Land Battle Decisive Munitions framework was established in 2018 and allows Allies and partners to harmonize national procurement plans, while encouraging multinational purchases. Currently 24 Allies and partners participate in the programme. It is an integral part of NATO’s push to increase ammunition production and aggregating demand as part of the new Defence Production Action Plan endorsed at the Vilnius Summit. The participating Allies are: Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom; plus Austria and Sweden.