“There is no way to provide a strong defence without a strong defence industry,” stressed Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday. At a forum dedicated to the arms industry, held in parallel with the NATO summit in Washington, the Secretary General of the Alliance announced a contract worth 700 million dollars (647 million euros) for member countries to manufacture more Stinger missiles. It is one of the steps with which the organisation wants to encourage its partners to invest more, and produce more, in military equipment, as part of its mission to “defend and deter”.
Boosting the production of military equipment and improving interoperability between the different forces and systems is one of the major concerns of the Alliance. During their plenary sessions at the summit, the countries are expected to commit to strengthening their respective national sectors, either through collaborations with local companies or through multinational pacts.
The contract announced by Stoltenberg provides for the purchase, through the Alliance’s Defense Procurement Agency (NSPA), of 940 Stingers, one of the first types of Western weapons to be sent to Ukraine following the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. The portable air defense system can be installed on a vehicle or carried by soldiers and used at close range. The sale must still be approved by the US State Department.
“Production matters. Production is deterrence,” said U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks at the same forum. “Adding more shifts to existing assembly lines is not enough. We need more lines, building more factories and facilities, and attracting more producers,” she added.
The concern, which was already there, has been accelerated by the prolongation of the war in Ukraine, now in its third year. As the conflict has dragged on, the allies have had to draw more and more on their reserve arsenals and equipment to send to the invaded country, without the industry being able to replenish that equipment at the same pace.
Earlier on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced the delivery to kyiv of new Patriot anti-aircraft batteries donated by the United States, Germany and Romania, and components donated by the Netherlands and other nations to “enable the operation of an additional Patriot battery,” in addition to an additional SAMPT system donated by Italy. “In the coming months, the United States and its partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of tactical air defense systems, including NASAMS, Hawks, IRIS T-SLM, IRIS T-SLS and Gepard,” the White House said in a statement.
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“The war has shown not only that arsenals are, have been, too small, and production capacity has been too small,” Stoltenberg said in his speech. The Secretary General also recalled that the war had revealed “serious deficiencies” in coordination and compatibility between the forces of the different countries.
Rachel Ellehuus, from the US mission to NATO, added: “Opportunities like this [el contrato de los misiles Stinger]a multinational, multi-year purchase, ensures that allies can meet their capability objectives, respond to their national needs and continue to provide support to Ukraine.”
Russia
As the war in Ukraine continues, the Russian threat is growing, allies say. The defense industry of the ex-Soviet giant, hit hard by international sanctions in the first months of the war, has managed to recover its production. In part, say the United States and its allies, this is due to assistance provided by China – through dual-use exports – North Korea and Iran. According to Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, Russia is investing between 7% and 9% of its GDP in defense.
Trying to solve these kinds of problems is one of the reasons that has accelerated the Alliance’s military spending, which has been stagnant for years. Now, 23 of the 32 countries meet or exceed the goal set a decade ago of investing 2% of their GDP in defense, when then only nine of them reached that level. Spain, which invests 1.28%, notes that it plans to reach that goal in 2029 and more than meets others, such as participation in joint missions and investment in equipment and research of more than 20% of its defense spending. This year, the allies’ joint spending will exceed $500 billion, compared to the $325 billion invested in 2020, according to US data.
Last year, at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO partners agreed on an action plan to speed up production and fill the most urgent shortages, especially ammunition. Since then, the NATO agency has signed nearly $10 billion in contracts. Now in Washington, countries will commit to developing their national sectors, which are very diverse in size and specialization, to strengthen military production and cooperation with companies in the sector.
Announcing this step at the forum, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that these commitments will allow the Alliance to “prioritize the production of the most essential defense equipment that we may need in the event of a conflict.”
Among other factors, the manufacturing companies claim the need for long-term contracts that allow for the capital investment necessary for the construction of new assembly lines and factories.
To strengthen its defence and deterrence capabilities, and its availability of military equipment, the Alliance will also look to like-minded governments in Asia-Pacific (Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand), invited to the summit for the third consecutive year. Part of the work will focus on exploring possibilities of cooperation in defence production with these nations: South Korea and Australia are among the world’s largest exporters, ranked tenth and sixteenth respectively, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“As part of our plan to expand our industrial capacity, we will also have provisions to work more closely not only with the defense industrial ecosystem in Ukraine, but also with the defense ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific,” a senior European official said in a meeting with journalists. This was confirmed at a press conference on Monday by the head of Europe at the White House National Security Council, Michael Carpenter: “This is an important moment for us to be able to coordinate (with the so-called “Indo-Pacific Four”) on issues such as resilience, combating disinformation, or cooperation in the defense industry.”
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