Enlarge image
Ammunition control in the Bundeswehr (photo from 2017)
Photo: Stefan Puchner / dpa
The federal government wants to ramp up the production of military ammunition with a concerted approach.
Jens Plötner, foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Armament State Secretary Benedikt Zimmer from the Ministry of Defense have invited key representatives of the arms industry to the Chancellery for next Monday.
The digital media company “Table Media” and “Welt” were the first to report on the invitation.
At the meeting, according to government circles, possibilities are to be explored as to how the various departments of the federal government can support the increase in ammunition production in Germany.
That is why the responsible state secretaries from the Ministry of Economics and the Federal Foreign Office (AA) have also been invited.
First of all, it should be about a kind of checkout, what is wrong with ammunition production and how the federal government can support the industry.
Currently, the Bundeswehr does not even meet the NATO requirements
The Bundeswehr has been suffering from low ammunition stocks for years, and currently the troops cannot even meet NATO requirements.
These stipulate that ammunition should be available for 30 days of combat.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that various types of ammunition from Bundeswehr stocks have been handed over to Ukraine.
Ukraine is in particularly bad need of artillery shells to fight the Russian invaders and is firing far more shells than initially thought.
The problem does not only affect Germany.
According to media reports, even the United States, which has significantly larger stocks of ammunition than Germany, is sometimes at the limit of its possibilities because of the deliveries to Ukraine.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has raised this several times at international rounds in support of Ukraine, urging all partners to ramp up production as quickly as possible.
The federal government hopes that concerted action by the various departments can contribute to the process of rapidly increasing production in Germany.
It is conceivable, for example, that the economics department could support new production facilities.
The Foreign Ministry, so the idea goes, could help with difficulties in importing special parts or raw materials from abroad.
The Chancellery and Defense Department are planning to repeat meetings with industry at regular intervals.
