Behind Europe’s ammo pledge to Ukraine, some manufacturers grow leery

ROME and MILAN — Plans by the European Union to instruct suppliers of ammunition raw materials to give priority to orders from EU munition makers are ringing alarm bells among member states and firms which fear trade secrets could be revealed and rivals compelled to bail each other out.

The plans are part of a bold EU move announced last month to beef up the output of munitions in Europe – particularly 155-millimeter artillery shells – to supply Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.

One billion euros has been earmarked to compensate bloc members for the shells they donate from their stocks, another billion is to fund the joint purchase of more munitions from EU states and Norway. In a third initiative, the EU will fund member states’ investments in factories and accelerate permits for new facilities to speed up production.

The scheme has been hailed as taking the EU into new territory as an arms buyer and catalyst for rapid growth in the defense industry.

The third initiative also goes further, putting the EU in the role of an industry arbiter and go-between which will be able to ask firms selling raw materials – like explosives – to prioritize sales to ammunition companies which lack those materials.

“The Commission’s proposal provides for priority rated orders to help manufacturers – for example – with the supply of necessary raw materials where the Commission could ask suppliers to prioritize selling to those manufacturers,” a European Commission spokesperson told Defense News.

The “Temporary emergency measure” is now winding its way through the EU’s approval approval process, the spokesperson added.

The plan has however already raised fears the EU is getting too proactive in managing the continent’s ammunition business, the spokesperson acknowledged.

Member states had expressed concerns, she said, that the plan “could require the notification and possible violation of commercial secrets or sensitive information and hand too much power to the EU.”

A manager at Norwegian ammunition firm Nammo foresaw the possibility of defense firms with excess materials being asked to sell to rivals with shortages.

“We still await the legislation but I expect it will have an impact on strategy and competition if they force companies to sell raw materials to other companies. There will be pushback from dominant companies,” said Vegard Sande, the vice president of Large Caliber Systems at Nammo.

Sande suggested that if the EU asked firms to share stocks with competitors, it might not find the firms totally forthcoming about what they have in their warehouses.

“If a defense company doesn’t want to sell to a rival it could be difficult for the EU to find out if they have that capability,” he said.

The Commission spokesperson said companies and states had little to worry about.

“The Commission has long-standing experience in handling such information in the context of other procedures and has the necessary safeguards in place,” she said.

Sande said there were also questions to be answered about the so-called Track 2 of the EU’s ammunition plan: the €1 billion joint purchase of ammunition.

In an FAQ document released about the purchase plan, the Commission claims the actual acquisitions could be managed by the EU European Defense Agency or by individual member countries.

“Practically, joint procurement can be done through the European Defence Agency , (which) will be acting as the contracting authority, management body, and ordering entity. Alternatively, member states will be able to join national procurement schemes at the invitation of ‘lead nations,’”the FAQ states.

“I am a little bit confused about this,” said Sande, adding, “We see Germany making its own plans to buy one million rounds of ammunition. Is there is a risk Germany will be competing with the EDA to purchase ammunition?”

Speaking last month at the European Defence & Security Summit, Saab CEO Micael Johansson, said the Commission needed to decide whether the joint purchase should be handled by nations or the EDA.

“There needs to be much greater direction and guidance in the long term from the Commission,” he said.

The EU has said products purchased must come from the EU and Norway, although products partly assembled elsewhere are permitted if they have “undergone an important” part of their manufacture in the EU or Norway, including final assembly.

“There are rumors some firms would order complete shells from India, make the fuzes outside the EU too and then assemble them in Europe,” said Nammo’s Sande.

One problem facing Europe is a shortfall in explosives, he said, adding that a joint purchase might not be able to drum up more than half a million shells.

“We would need explosives from outside the EU and the U.S. to make it up to a million shells and I don’t see strong support for that,” he said.

A source at France’s Nexter, however, claimed the firm’s supply chain was 90 percent in France and ten percent within the EU, including its controlled firm Simmel in Italy.

In an interview with Germany’s RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland on June 10, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said his firm was able to produce 450,000 155mm munitions a year, almost half the million shells Ukraine will need this year.

He said that if Rheinmetall can complete its planned purchase of Spain’s Expal this summer, it will boost its annual capacity to 600,000 shells.

Saab’s Johansson said last month his company could produce 400,000 shells a year by early 2025, so the EU’s aim to produce one million was “realistic.”

“We at Saab, as a company, were fortunate to have started investing twice as much when it comes to ammunition production and supply weapons long before the war. But it needs to be much much more, so we are again increasing this two-fold as we speak,” he said.

He added, “Countries’ defense forces have been used for a long time to have little money and lots of time. Today, it’s a whole different mindset and process. They find themselves having lots of money, from all the recent investments and demand announced, but with little to no time. It takes time for these changes to happen, and it will take some time as well for acquisition processes to evolve, but they have to.”

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

罗马和米兰——欧盟计划指示弹药原材料供应商优先满足欧盟弹药制造商的订单，这在成员国和企业中敲响了警钟，他们担心商业机密可能会泄露，竞争对手将被迫互相救助。

这些计划是欧盟上个月宣布的一项大胆举措的一部分，旨在加强欧洲的弹药产量，特别是155毫米炮弹的产量，以支持乌克兰抵御俄罗斯的入侵。

欧盟已拨出10亿欧元用于补偿成员国捐献库存炮弹，另有10亿欧元用于联合从欧盟成员国和挪威采购更多弹药。此外，欧盟还将资助成员国投资建设军工厂，并加快新设施的审批流程，以提升生产效率。

该计划被誉为将欧盟带入了作为武器买家的新领域，并成为国防工业快速增长的催化剂。

第三项举措更进一步，赋予欧盟行业仲裁者和中间人的角色，使其能够要求销售原材料（如炸药）的公司优先向缺乏这些材料的弹药公司进行销售。

欧盟委员会发言人告诉《防务新闻》：“委员会的提案规定了优先评级订单，以帮助制造商——例如——获得必要的原材料供应，委员会可以要求供应商优先向这些制造商出售产品。”

发言人补充说，这项“临时紧急措施”目前正在走欧盟的审批程序。

发言人承认，该计划已经引发了人们的担忧，即欧盟在管理欧洲大陆的弹药业务方面过于积极主动。

她说，成员国曾表示担忧，认为该计划“可能需要通知并可能导致商业秘密或敏感信息的泄露，并赋予欧盟过大的权力”。

挪威弹药公司Nammo的一位经理预见到，国防公司可能会被要求将过剩的物资出售给物资短缺的竞争对手。

“我们仍在等待相关立法，但我预计，如果强制企业向其他企业出售原材料，将会对战略和竞争产生影响。届时，行业巨头将会进行抵制，”Nammo公司大口径系统副总裁维加德·桑德表示。

桑德认为，如果欧盟要求企业与竞争对手分享库存，企业可能不会完全坦诚地透露其仓库中的库存情况。

他说：“如果一家国防公司不愿意向竞争对手出售产品，欧盟可能很难查明该公司是否具备这种能力。”

委员会发言人表示，企业和各州无需过多担心。

她说：“委员会在其他程序中处理此类信息方面拥有丰富的经验，并已采取必要的保障措施。”

桑德表示，欧盟弹药计划的所谓“第二轨道”——10亿欧元的联合弹药采购——也存在一些需要解答的问题。

在一份关于采购计划的常见问题解答文件中，欧盟委员会声称实际的采购可以由欧盟欧洲防务局或各个成员国管理。

“实际上，联合采购可以通过欧洲防务局进行，该机构将作为合同授予机构、管理机构和订购实体。或者，成员国也可以应‘牵头国家’的邀请加入国家采购计划，”常见问题解答中指出。

桑德说：“我对此有点困惑。”他补充道：“我们看到德国正在制定购买100万发子弹的计划。德国是否会与欧洲防务局（EDA）争夺弹药采购权？”

萨博首席执行官米凯尔·约翰逊上个月在欧洲防务与安全峰会上表示，欧盟委员会需要决定联合采购是由各国还是由欧洲防务局负责。

他说：“从长远来看，委员会需要提供更大的方向和指导。”

欧盟表示，所购产品必须来自欧盟和挪威，但允许部分在其他地方组装的产品，前提是其制造过程中“重要”的一部分（包括最终组装）在欧盟或挪威完成。

“有传言说，一些公司会从印度订购完整的炮弹，在欧盟以外的地方制造引信，然后在欧洲组装它们，”Nammo公司的桑德说。

他表示，欧洲面临的一个问题是炸药短缺，并补充说，联合采购可能也无法筹集到超过50万枚炮弹。

他说：“我们需要从欧盟和美国以外的地方购买炸药才能凑够一百万枚炮弹，但我没有看到对此有强有力的支持。”

然而，法国奈克斯特公司的一位消息人士称，该公司的供应链 90% 在法国，10% 在欧盟境内，包括其控股的意大利公司 Simmel。

6月10日，莱茵金属公司首席执行官阿明·帕佩格尔在接受德国RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland采访时表示，他的公司每年能够生产45万枚155毫米炮弹，几乎是乌克兰今年所需100万枚炮弹的一半。

他表示，如果莱茵金属公司能够在今年夏天完成对西班牙Expal公司的收购，其年产能将提高到60万个壳体。

萨博公司的约翰逊上个月表示，到 2025 年初，他的公司每年可以生产 40 万个炮弹，因此欧盟每年生产 100 万个炮弹的目标是“现实的”。

“我们萨博公司很幸运，早在战争爆发前就开始在弹药生产和武器供应方面投入两倍的资金。但还需要更多，所以我们现在正在再次将投入翻倍，”他说。

他补充道：“长期以来，各国国防部队都习惯于资金匮乏但时间充裕。如今，情况截然不同，思维方式和流程也大相径庭。由于近期宣布的各项投资和需求，他们拥有了大量资金，但时间却捉襟见肘。这些变化需要时间才能实现，采购流程的演变也需要时间，但这是必然的。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。