Western military powers have to ramp up the production of ammunition at a much higher tempo as Ukraine fires thousands of shells every day and most now come from NATO, Adm Rob Bauer, NATO’s most senior military official, said during the Warsaw Security Forum.
The allies are running out of ammunition to give Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion and “the bottom of the barrel is now visible,” he said, according to BBC.
“We need large volumes. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things – but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing,” the admiral, who chairs NATO’s Military Committee, stressed.
In addition, UK Defence Minister James Heappey told the forum that Western military stockpiles were “looking a bit thin” and criticized the “just-in-time” model, saying that it “definitely does not work when you need to be ready for the fight tomorrow”. The minister also called NATO allies to spend 2% of their national wealth on defense, as they had committed to do.
“We have to keep Ukraine in the fight tonight and tomorrow and the day after and the day after. And if we stop, that doesn’t mean that Putin automatically stops,” Mr Heappey said.
The minister urged the West to continue supporting Ukraine and rebuild its own weapons stockpiles.
Earlier, British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK planned to deliver tens of thousands of artillery shells in 2023 to Ukraine.
UK to send tens of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine in 2023
The UK had already completed the delivery of 300,000 artillery shells to Ukraine, said the defense secretary.
