EU falls short on artillery pledge to Ukraine amidst bottlenecks
The European Union failed to fulfill its commitment to Ukraine and did not deliver one million artillery shells by March 2024. The Economist highlights the bottleneck in arms production in Europe that emerged after the Cold War and came to light recently following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The British Weekly notes that insufficient explosives are the primary bottleneck in ammunition production in Europe. This issue, which became apparent due to arms supplies to Ukraine, arose after the Cold War when European manufacturers of these materials started to scale back operations and shut down factories.
"The Economist" notes that the last large plant producing TNT is in Poland, explicitly referring to Nitro-Chem.
- For decades, production was adjusted to peacetime needs and not to industrial-scale production - says Prof. Johann Höcherl from the Bundeswehr University, as quoted by the Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita".
Three to four years to build an explosives factory
In March, the European Union granted 500 million euros in funding to accelerate production. The majority of this amount, approximately 400 million euros, is expected to go to explosives manufacturers, writes "Rz."
As The Economist pointed out, the industry doubts it can increase its capacities as quickly as Brussels would like. Building an explosives factory from scratch takes three to seven years.
Deliveries from countries such as Japan and India are expected to help fill the gaps in the European market.
