NATO’s defence industrial pledge takes shape in yet another bid to boost output

NATO is set to provide a platform to help its members shape national production strategies, in a new attempt to boost production, Euractiv has learnt.

NATO leaders are expected to commit to drafting national plans and strategies for how to accelerate the growth of their defence industry and share experience at the Western military alliance, several NATO diplomats told Euractiv.

With this step, under the banner ‘NATO Industrial Capacity Expansion’ pledge, which will be endorsed in Washington next week, NATO members hope to give yet another political push to their defence industry.

A few months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, NATO members realised that their defence industry lacks the capacity to produce the required quantities fast enough for Ukraine and its backers refilling their warehouses.

It has pushed them to look for ways to increase that production, as Euractiv reported, and ramp up defence spending, though Ukraine still remains outgunned against Russia.

The defence industry, in the meantime, is primarily calling for long-term contracts as the best way to have perspective and justify investment into new supply chains and production lines.

NATO defence industrial pledge will aim to “ensure that we work together to increase production across North America and Europe across the whole Alliance,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last month.

However, this “political commitment” will see countries preparing and sharing strategies on a “voluntary basis”, one NATO diplomat told Euractiv, stressing that the responsibility to deliver rests on national governments. 

NATO’s role in that context will be that of a conveyer, enabler, facilitator, and a “key platform” to expand the capacity, according to the draft text. It also aims to support Ukraine militarily, with licensing of equipment and production for instance.

The goal is also to improve equipment standardisation of the equipment used among the 32 military allies – and Ukraine – and therefore their ability to work together on the ground, the so-called “interoperability”, a second NATO diplomat told Euractiv.

A large part of that pledge to increase production also rests on a commitment to create multi-national procurement deals for armament, on a large scale, in reference to large contracts passed via NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), according to the people with knowledge of the text.

The draft text has reached a final version, people familiar with the negotiations told Euractiv, although the first quoted diplomat cautioned that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.

NATO vs. EU

An important part of the negotiations, three NATO diplomats told Euractiv, focused on the balance between the roles of NATO and the EU, which has seen its ambition to become a security actor via industrial policy increase.

While France has a long-standing position to focus European financial resources in Europe, instead of investing in foreign companies, other countries – the United States in the lead – preferr to refer to the “transatlantic industry” including North America.

Both camps, in a way, argue for the development of their own defence industry, by pressing other countries to purchase from them.

“The transatlantic defence cooperation is a critical part of the defence and deterrence of the alliance,” the draft text says.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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