The European Commission announced on Wednesday a plan to invest 500 million euros of the European budget in military industry, with the aim of producing one million munitions a year to support Ukraine’s long-term resistance.
The plan was announced by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and is called the Act in Support of Ammunition Production. The acronym in English is ASAP, and this is also a play on words: ASAP stands for “as soon as possible”, as fast as possible, and it is also a way of saying that military aid to Ukraine is urgent.
ASAP is part of a wider Commission program to support Ukraine’s military effort against Russia and foresees that part of the European budget, 500 million euros, is diverted to European industries that produce armaments to finance the production of one million new ammunition within 12 months. The munitions will be sent to Ukraine, where the army fighting the Russian invasion urgently needs supplies: according to European estimates, Ukraine uses about 7,000 munitions a day (which, spread over a year, becomes two and a half million).
Many details of the plan have yet to be defined.
The 500 million employed in ASAP will be moved from other European defense programmes, and it is not yet entirely clear how their use will take place. Funding should be given to already existing arms manufacturers, and in an interview with Politico Breton he said that companies that are willing to sign joint supply contracts between several countries will receive preferential treatment, to increase the transversality of the operation. In economic terms, the investment of 500 million euros is limited (in 2020 the European defense industry it was worth 119 billion), but the Commission hopes that it will be sufficient to stimulate an increase in production and also to convince the intervention of private investments.
As for the type of ammunition that will be affected by the plan, we are talking about artillery ammunition, those used for cannons and howitzers, which are what the Ukrainian army most urgently needs. In Wednesday’s press conference, Breton spoke about 155 mm caliber ammunition (which is used by European guns) and 152 mm caliber (which is used by Soviet guns, still in use in the Ukrainian army). Part of the funding will be used to retrofit old weapons and make them suitable for use in battle.
ASAP also provides that the member countries of the Union can use some European common funds to support their defense industry.
The shortage of artillery ammunition has been a major problem facing the Ukrainian army for months now: according to some estimates, Russia uses almost ten times the amount of ammunition used by the Ukrainian army every day. This shortage is creating serious problems at the front, where there are frequent reports of Ukrainian soldiers that they do not have enough ammunition and cannons to fight back against Russian forces.
But the very high use of ammunition by the Ukrainian army is also a problem for its Western allies, whose arsenals are not sufficiently supplied to support such a high demand for new weapons. For this reason, the European Commission is trying to encourage an increase in production in the military industry.
ASAP is part of a larger three-part plan, which has been introduced in March: the first part provides for the allocation of one billion euros to partially reimburse the member countries that have ceded their armaments to Ukraine, while the second part provides for the formation of agreements between the member countries to obtain joint supply contracts between more countries, to obtain better conditions in the purchase of weapons and ammunition.