The UK and Nato have warned that Western military forces are running low on supplies to offer Ukraine war so that it can defend itself against a full-scale invasion by Russia.
The top military official of NATO, Adm. Rob Bauer, stated during the Warsaw Security Forum that “the bottom of the barrel is now visible.”
Governments and defense industry producers, he claimed, now needed to “ramp up production in a much higher tempo.”
Every day, Ukraine launches thousands of shells, the majority of them are now NATO-made.
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The admiral, who is in charge of Nato’s Military Committee, claimed that due to decades of underfunding, Nato nations had started supplying Ukraine with weapons when their stockpile of ammunition was already half full or even less filled.
“We require a lot of volume. The military should not be supported by the just-in-time, just-enough economy we jointly constructed in our liberal economies while a war is still in progress.
James Heappey, the UK’s defense minister, warned the event that Western military inventories were “looking a bit thin” and he asked Nato countries to honor their commitment to spend 2% of their national income on defense.
When is the right time to spend 2% on defense, he questioned, if not now, when there is a war in Europe?
The “just-in-time” concept, according to him as well, “definitely does not work when you need to be prepared for the fight tomorrow.”
Because our stockpiles are beginning to look a little thin, Mr. Heappey added, “We can’t stop.” “We need to keep Ukraine engaged in the conflict tonight, tomorrow, the following day, and the following day. And even if we stop, Putin won’t necessarily follow suit.
And that implied, according to him, “continuing to give, day in and day out, and rebuilding our own stockpiles”.
“The fact that not all of the alliance’s members are currently devoting 2% of their GDP on defense is the elephant in the room. That must serve as the minimum rather than the maximum of our defense spending.
He continued, “When it comes to the alliance, the US is increasingly looking east and west, and I think justifiably our colleagues in Congress need to see the European powers are spending their 2% to resource Nato equitably.”
