NATO officials have finalized a $1.2 billion contract to purchase “hundreds of thousands of rounds of 155-millimeter artillery ammunition,” one day after Russia claimed that Western aid is a gift to the U.S. economy.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has become a battle for ammunition, so it is important that allies refill their own stocks as we continue to support Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Tuesday.
Stoltenberg underscored that aid for Ukraine involves funding for Western manufacturing to produce new weapons. It’s a dynamic that Western and even Russian officials have highlighted amid congressional negotiations over President Joe Biden’s request for Congress to authorize more funding for Ukraine.
“This is a significant boost for our trans-Atlantic defense industry, helping us to meet our own security needs while continuing to provide vital support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
That deal arises from a Defense Production Action Plan that NATO leaders authorized at the Vilnius Summit in July as European leaders have struggled to meet their goal of providing Ukraine with one million artillery shells by the spring of 2024. Even this new contract only starts a yearslong process.
“So today’s contract will enable the delivery of 155 rounds to nations, and the expected delivery time for orders placed today are within 24 to 36 months,” said Stacy Cummings, NATO Support and Procurement Agency’s general manager.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put a spotlight on Western defense industrial spending this week in a bid to argue that trans-Atlantic support for Ukraine induces European Union countries to spend money with U.S. companies.
“At the same time, the majority of EU members continue to obediently follow Washington’s orders to supply more and more arms to [Ukraine], depleting their arsenals, which, of course, will be replenished with products purchased from the U.S. defense industry,” Lavrov insisted at the United Nations Security Council. “Europeans will be forced to come up with the money for this.”
Stoltenberg and other European leaders have emphasized the need to expand the European defense industrial base in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which they interpret as evidence that Russia might eventually attack NATO allies.
“We need to be readier across the whole spectrum,” Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, who chairs the NATO Military Committee, told reporters last week. “You need to be able to fall back on an industrial base that is able to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to be able to continue a conflict if you are in it.”
Those misgivings have an echo in Washington, where Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine has been delayed by a standoff with congressional Republicans who want the White House to accept a variety of measures to mitigate the border crisis.
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“In Europe, our closest allies and trading partners are one border away from facing the brunt of naked authoritarian aggression,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Monday. “Our adversaries are posing pretty fundamental questions about American national security and the security of our allies and interests around the world. Will we act to secure America’s sovereign borders and help our friends fighting for theirs? Will we equip U.S. forces and our allies to meet aggression with overwhelming deterrent strength? Will we invest seriously in the cutting-edge capabilities and expanded capacity necessary to outpace our top strategic adversary?”
Stoltenberg maintained an optimistic outlook. “We do all of this to ensure that we have the readiness, the preparedness, and the forces in place to remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness to protect every inch of NATO territory,” he said. “And as long as we do that, there will be no attack against the NATO territory.”