A senior NATO military official warned on Saturday that a sharp rise in ammunition prices meant allies’ higher defense spending did not automatically translate into greater security and called for more private investment in defense companies.
According to a report published by Portal, the comments came after a meeting of alliance defense chiefs in Oslo on Saturday.
Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said: “The prices of equipment and ammunition are skyrocketing. Right now we’re paying more and more for exactly the same thing. This means we cannot ensure that increased defense spending actually leads to increased security.”
NATO is pushing to increase defense production to meet needs for weapons and equipment that have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine, as allies not only speed up deliveries to Kiev but also build up their own stockpiles.
A major concern has been the shortage of 155mm artillery shells, with Kiev firing up to 10,000 of these shells per day, according to Portal.
In early February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Kiev would burn the shells much faster than the West could produce them.
“Long-term stability must take precedence over short-term profits. As we saw in Ukraine, war is an event affecting society as a whole. Such investments would also be in the strategic interest of the private sector,” he said.
“Forty percent of the (Ukrainian) economy was destroyed in the first days of the war, a lot of that was private money, that money is gone,” he added, as quoted by Portal.
However, there is no connection between a lack of ammunition and the difficult course of the counteroffensive in Ukraine, said Bauer.
“The reason it takes time is because it is extremely dangerous, because in a very deep minefield – more than ten kilometers – with five, six mines per square meter, there is an enormous amount of mines,” he said, pointing indicated that Ukraine was still advancing 200 or 300 meters per day, as Portal reported.
In 2024, NATO will hold its largest collective defense exercise since the Cold War, with over 40,000 troops from across the alliance taking part in Exercise Steadfast Defender in Germany, Poland and the three Baltic states.
(With Portal input)