Spain and 22 European countries feed Ukraine with one million large-calibre shells

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, former French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry (2005-2007), sent in 2019 to Brussels by President Emmanuel Macron to defend French strategic interests in the European Union, has become a sort of "de facto" Minister of Defence and the standard-bearer of the military industry of old Europe.

He is 68 years old, has a lion's mane, a bombproof dynamism and a reputation for overcoming any obstacle that comes his way. And once again he has lived up to his reputation. At the last meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels in March, hand in hand with the European Defence Agency (EDA), he was able to present them with a Collaborative Ammunition Procurement project that got the green light.

The enthusiastic European Commissioner convinced the majority of the 27 member states that it is "extremely important" that Ukraine can have the ammunition it needs "simply to defend itself", as it is in a situation of "real urgency". Outcome. The proposal has already been signed by the Spanish Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, and 22* of her European counterparts, and is endowed with 2 billion euros. 

The commitment of the European Commissioner and the EDA implements one of the lines of action proposed by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Spain's Josep Borrell. The plan aims to replenish EU countries' stockpiles of ammunition, missiles and explosives, which have been severely depleted as a result of deliveries made 13 months ago to the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight against invading Russian troops.

Pending the fine print, it is based on three urgent lines of action. The first is endowed with 1 billion euros and aims to continue supplying Ukraine with large-calibre shells, especially 155 millimetre shells. Breton and the EDA intend to pool ammunition purchases over two years according to the needs of each state, reduce costs through economies of scale and make deliveries to Ukraine.

The EU intends to respond to the repeated demands of President Volodomir Zelensky, whose artillery pieces fire around a thousand large-calibre shells a day. For Ukraine's survival, he is urgently requesting food for his batteries of Western-calibre 105-, 120- and 155-millimetre howitzers and Russian-calibre 122- and 152-millimetre howitzers. In total, it expects to receive around one million shells before the end of the year.

The deliveries will be financed by the European Peace Facility (EPF), an extra-budgetary instrument that has been expanded and now totals 7,979 million euros. This amount will be used to reimburse governments for up to 66 per cent of their purchases of arms, ammunition and materiel supplied to Ukraine. 

The second pillar is aimed at replenishing depleted stocks of the full range of ammunition and missiles stored in European armed forces' ammunition depots: from 5.56 millimetre calibre for rifles and machine guns to 155 calibre for long-range artillery. The initiative covers a period of seven years and has been allocated a further 1 billion euros, which will also be drawn from the Peace Facility to partially cover each country's purchases. 

The third line of action is to provide financial support to the European defence industry, with the aim of increasing its manufacturing volume and production rates in order to meet current and future needs. A team of EDA officials and advisers called the Joint Defence Procurement Task Force has identified that, of the 27 EU nations, only 11 have a total of 15 companies producing munitions or missiles on a mass scale. 

Confident in the success of his project, Thierry Breton has embarked on a tour to visit the main production plants and convince their managers to increase the pace and volume of production. In Bulgaria, he inspected the VMZ company in Sopot, 136 kilometres from Sofia, which specialises in Russian calibre shells and cartridges that the Ukrainian army needs for its rifles, machine guns, cannons and howitzers and that Western companies are unable to supply.

Accompanied by the Gallic armaments authorities, he also visited the plant in Bourges, 200 kilometres from Paris, where the French state-owned land armaments company Nexter produces ammunition. Bourges is the same location where MBDA, a large Franco-Italian-British company, develops and manufactures missiles. He has also been in the Czech Republic to review STV, the leading national company in the sector, near Prague.

In Poland, together with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Minister of Defence, Mariusz Blaszczak, he saw the possibilities offered by the company Dezamet at its headquarters in Nowa Deba, 200 kilometres from Warsaw. In Slovakia, he examined the capabilities of the Dubnica nad Váhom workshops - 120 kilometres from Bratislava - belonging to the MSM group of companies, another of Europe's leading munitions producers.

Slovakian MSM owns the Grenada Munitions Factory (FMG). In February 2020, it bought the entire shareholding from the US multinational General Dynamics European Land Systems, which had acquired it a year earlier from the state-owned company Santa Bárbara. FMG is located in El Fargue, 10 kilometres from the capital, and produces 105 and 120 millimetre projectiles. 

There are other companies in Spain that produce large, medium and small calibre ammunition. Expal, which is in the process of being acquired by the German company Rheinmetall - one of the most important in the European sector - is waiting for the Council of Ministers to approve the purchase and be able to finalise the takeover. Expal's main plants are in Jabalí Viejo (Murcia) and Trubia (Asturias). Another is the Norwegian company Nammo Palencia, which produces small calibre ammunition. In Zaragoza is Instalaza, with national capital, whose specialities are portable anti-tank rocket systems and hand and rifle grenades.

But "you can't invest money and expect production to increase overnight," warned Jan Pie, secretary general of the European Association of Aerospace and Defence Industries, a Swede. An advisor to the Brussels technical experts, Pie pointed out that there are still "bureaucratic hurdles" to overcome. The EDA is proposing to simplify tendering processes and companies are willing to expand staff and invest in new machinery. But only if governments commit to significantly increase their purchases over the next few years.

*The 22 countries that have so far joined the Brussels Ammunition Plan are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the non-EU country Norway.