How to ensure that the United States and its allies have the weapons they need

With strong allied military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, one of the most debated questions on both sides of the Atlantic is whether there is enough defense industrial capability between America North and Europe to meet the current and future needs of NATO and its member states.

Simply put, that’s the wrong way to look at the situation. Prioritization, not capacity, is the real problem facing allies as they continue to supply Ukraine, but also work to ensure NATO members have sufficient supplies. defense for future needs. This is a real opportunity for both the United States and its NATO allies to build sustainable transatlantic industrial resilience for the future.

This week, NATO Armaments Directors will meet to address these specific issues. Leading the charge will be Bill LaPlante, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. The agenda will focus on what the allies need to give Ukraine to continue defending itself and what kinds of weapons and technology the allies need for their own armies. Ensuring that Ukraine and all NATO members have the equipment and materiel they need is at the heart of self-defence as well as the collective defense commitment of Article V of NATO.

The capacity of the defense industrial base is an issue that is not going away. While COVID-19, inflation and the invasion of Russia have exacerbated the industrial base problems, the reality is that supply chain and production challenges have existed for at least a decade due to the government procurement policies, including programming and budgeting programs with limited ability to expand or expand production. ; wasteful congressional budgeting practices like sequestration; parliamentary resistance to investing in the necessary capacities, as seen in Europe over the past two decades; and highly bureaucratic defense export policies on both sides of the Atlantic.

This week’s sessions are a crucial opportunity for allied governments and industry to begin the policy, regulatory and mental adjustments needed to prioritize defense production where it matters most. Three topics are essential for these upcoming NATO sessions.

First, it must be recognized that the capability exists throughout the transatlantic space, but that some of the elements currently needed to fight Ukraine are struggling with obsolescence issues. Javelins and Stingers, for example, are no longer produced in significant quantities for US or allied forces and scaling up production lines is difficult.

At the recent Defense News conference, LaPlante said the DoD needs to invest in the supply chain to meet current needs and provide resilience against future demands. What is essential here is not only more investment dollars, but also predictability, stability and sustainability of demand. The DoD’s recent signaling that it is open to multi-year ammunition procurement will be extremely helpful in this regard.

Second, the war in Ukraine demonstrated that the United States must change its foreign military sales processes to produce and export quickly. The main complaints of the industry and its allies about the FMS system are that it is slow, opaque and unpredictable. This must change.

As we have seen since the outbreak of war against Ukraine, US and allied governments can move with the speed necessary to provide materiel and weapons. However, as many DoD officials have noted, the answer has been to throw more people at the problems and work longer; no systemic solution has been undertaken for future needs. Senior leaders should look for flexibility in existing laws and the willingness to use that flexibility to meet future demand.

Third, industrial resilience is built before a crisis. Developing an allied approach to construction, co-production, licensed manufacturing and other flexibility options will increase resilience and benefit both sides of the Atlantic in terms of increased jobs, industrial production, trade and of interoperability. This will also allow for hotter production lines in times of crisis.

By prioritizing actions like these, U.S. and allied leaders will secure the industrial base capability needed to ensure weapons availability for the fights of today and tomorrow. While the specific requirements of future conflicts are unknown, now is the time to build resilience into existing and future defense programs and for the Departments of State and Defense to determine how to expedite FMS transactions to trusted allies. . It is essential for our collective future.

Daniel Fata is a nonresident Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, he served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy during the administration of President George W. Bush. Jerry McGinn is executive director of the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason Universitys School of Business. He is a former senior procurement officer for the US Department of Defense.

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