Volkskrant on Ammunition Production for Ukraine

This article by Peter Giesen and Serena Frijters in Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant examines some of the challenges faced in scaling up production of defence equipment including ammunition production in Europe.

ASD’s Defence & Security Director, Burkard Schmitt, is quoted:

“During the Cold War the German army had several thousand Leopard tanks, now there are only 300. For the last 30 years, we have lived under the assumption that war in Europe is no longer possible. Consequently, armed forces in Europe were dramatically downsized, and so were European defence industries.”

“Governments say they fully support Ukraine, but it often takes time to translate this into concrete acquisitions. The bottleneck is the contracts, I hear from our members.”

“A company only invests in an expensive new production line if it can be sure of the future demand. Even a relatively simple product such as the 155 mm artillery shell is available in all kinds of variants. Since they are not all completely interchangeable, you need to know who will buy which shells for which weapon systems and how many.”