Rising ammunition prices slow NATO's security enhancement efforts

(Patria) - A senior NATO military official warned that the drastic increase in ammunition prices means that increased spending by allies on defense does not automatically translate to greater security and called for more private investment in defense companies, Reuters reported.

"The prices of equipment and ammunition are rising. We are paying more and more for exactly the same thing right now," said Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, after a meeting of the alliance's chiefs of defense in Oslo.

"This means that we cannot be sure that increased defense spending actually leads to greater security," he added.

NATO has been pushing for increased defense production to meet the demand for weapons and equipment that has risen since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as allies are not only supplying Kyiv but also building up their own stockpiles.

One of the main concerns is the shortage of 155mm artillery shells, with Kyiv firing up to 10,000 per day. In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Kyiv was consuming shells much faster than the West could produce them.

Bauer advocated for more private investment in the defense sector to increase production capacity, urging pension funds and banks to stop labeling defense investments as unethical.

"Long-term stability should prevail over short-term profit. As we have seen in Ukraine, war is a total societal event," he said, adding that such investment is also in the strategic interest of the private sector.

"Forty percent (of the Ukrainian) economy evaporated in the first days of the war, that was largely private money, that money is gone," he noted.

Bauer urged business leaders to accelerate the expansion of production capacities.