“Signal” for the arms industry? In Europe, which is struggling with the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, the German manufacturer Rheinmetall is making a long-term investment in a new plant for the production of projectiles and ambitions to increase production tenfold, reports AFP.

On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz laid the foundation stone for a future production plant in the country’s largest defense-industrial complex, Unterluss, on the forested plains of northern Germany.

From 2025, it will produce artillery ammunition of 155 mm caliber with the aim of gradually increasing the capacity to 200,000 shells per year.

According to the chancellor, this is a “signal” for the Europeans, who are called to strengthen the defense and industrial base of the continent, giving preference to long-term and group orders.

“We must (…) return to the production of weapons on a large scale,” insisted Olaf Scholz.

Planning

Despite the billions of euros worth of arms supplied by EU countries to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, they are still far from achieving sufficient capacity to support the country in the long term and replenish its own stockpiles.

However, this is “an urgent necessity. Because, no matter how harsh this reality may be, we do not live in peaceful times,” emphasized the chancellor, for whom the “imperial ambitions” of Russian President Vladimir Putin are the “main threat.”

In this situation, “anyone who wants peace must restrain potential aggressors,” the chancellor said.

To achieve this, the EU-27 needs “closer” industrial cooperation.

“A strong industrial base is needed for strong defense. This will be achieved if we Europeans combine our orders, if we combine our resources and thus offer the industry prospects for the next 10, 20 or 30 years,” he emphasized.

Scholz acknowledged that Germany had long been a bad example because its arms policy was “conducted as if it were buying a car”, while the defense industry needed long-term planning to invest in new capabilities.

“If I want to buy a Golf in two or three years, I know it will be available,” he said, using a car metaphor.

But “tanks, howitzers, helicopters and air defense systems are not ready” and need orders guaranteed

Rheinmetall plans to produce up to 700,000 artillery shells a year by 2025, up from 400,000 to 500,000 this year. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he released only 70,000.

Up to three million shells

Germany’s biggest arms maker “already has a production capacity greater than that of the United States” for 155mm rounds, Rheinmetall chief Armin Papperger told AFP.

In the future, “the United States would like to produce one million shells a year, and Europe – two to three million, thanks to the alliance between European partners,” he added.

At the end of March, the Europeans will supply Ukraine with only half a million shells promised to Ukraine last year.

The Rheinmetall complex in Unterluss already produces 120-mm shells for Leopard 2 tanks, which are used on the Ukrainian front. Production rate increased from 60,000 units per year to 240,000 by 2022.

But with thousands of shells being fired every day, Ukrainian forces have a very serious and urgent need to try to repel the Russian invasion.

And the armies of European countries have their own gaps. After years of little investment, the German army’s stockpile is depleted, and ammunition needs are estimated by Rheinmetall at around 40 billion euros.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba called for the creation of a real “single market” of defense in the EU, which 27 is still far from achieving.