During the Ankara summit, NATO countries face a historic challenge by increasing arms production
A year after its historic pledge in The Hague to increase its defense spending, countries face NATO (NATO) during its upcoming summit this year in Ankara Another challenge is to get the industrial sector to produce weapons in sufficient quantities.
With the flow of money into defense budgets that rose last year by $90 billion in Europe and Canada alone, the alliance is struggling to convert this money into firepower.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that cash is essential, but a missile or tank cannot be stopped with a dollar or a euro, and he added: We have to transform the money into combat-ready capabilities, and quickly, this is our common priority.
/>This issue will be pivotal in Ankara, as NATO leaders are expected to conclude deals worth billions of dollars during a special industrial forum organized on the sidelines of their summit.
Producing weapons in sufficient quantities
The two wars in Ukraine and the Middle East revealed the challenges facing the industrial sector to produce weapons in sufficient quantities and within short periods of time.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrated Europe’s limited capabilities in this regard, as it highlighted the lack of basic capabilities and long waiting periods for production.
In At the same time, the war waged by the United States and Israel on Iran has depleted the American stockpile of weapons, putting intense pressure on companies to rebuild.
For Europe, the need to intensify efforts on this front is of fundamental importance at a time when the continent seeks to reduce its dependence on Washington in light of growing doubts about the extent of Washington’s reliability and warnings that Russia may launch attacks in the coming years.
Getting the upper hand over Russia
European Union Defense Commissioner Andreus said. Coppelius: We have learned how to raise extra money, but we must learn how to spend it effectively in order to outperform Russia in production, innovation and firepower.
Manufacturers stress that change has already begun, after decades of generalized underinvestment in defense.
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European Defense Industries Association Secretary General Camille Gran said that many manufacturers are investing in much greater production capacities.
But he added: Does this mean that we are exactly where we should be? Most likely not.
This is due to multiple reasons.
The first reason lies in the nature of the defense industry itself, as it is closely linked to issues of national sovereignty for each country.
In this regard, Coppelius said: In the European Union, we have 27 defense markets, governed by 27 sets of rules, and this fragmentation is expensive, and prevents the prosperity of medium and small companies that play a pivotal role in innovation.
Also, major companies in this sector do not find incentives to invest because they are confident that they will Priority at the national level, explained Guntram Wolff, a defense economist at the Bruegel Institute in Brussels, adding that the result is an unfortunate tendency to increase prices.
Coppelius believed that the solution to this issue lies in establishing a single defense market.
However, European industrialists express major reservations in this regard.
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