NATO is going to ask the member countries of the alliance to increase their stockpiles of weapons, which have been seriously depleted due to the events in Ukraine.
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Even before February 2022, many NATO countries were not meeting stockpile targets “because officials believed that wars of attrition with large-scale artillery battles were a thing of the past.”
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However, the scale of arms supplies to Ukraine has depleted the stocks of Western countries.
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And the increase in defense production is constrained by a number of factors, including the global shortage of semiconductors, certain types of raw materials and the problem of finding a sufficient number of highly qualified workers.
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“If Europe had to go to war with Russia, some countries would run out of ammunition in a matter of days,” said one European diplomat.
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According to an unnamed NATO official, the alliance has just completed a study of the remaining stockpiles of weapons. He noted that NATO is likely to increase the target level for its members in terms of stockpiles of weapons.
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“It will be an absolute shock if the targets (indicators) … are not raised,” he said.
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According to a NATO official, the biggest shortages are 155mm projectiles, HIMARS missiles and ammunition for air defense systems such as IRIS-T, Patriot and Gepard, which are actively used by Ukrainian forces.
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Decisions on targets for stockpiles of ammunition for members of the alliance are expected at the NATO summit, which will be held in Lithuania in July.
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However, according to NATO, resupply can take a long time.
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“I don’t think that over the next year our reserves will increase significantly. Any additional reserves that we have, we will transfer to Ukraine,” the alliance official said.
