NATO signs $1.2 billion ammunition contract to support Ukraine and replenish supplies | DW News

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday announced that it has signed a $1.2 billion (€1.1 billion) contract with companies from Germany and France for producing over 200,000 155 millimeter shells to NATO members, part of which will be supplied to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that increasing weapons production is important in order to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The 155 millimeter shells are to be used in the Caesar and Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery systems, as NATO's Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) announced on Tuesday. NATO signed the contract with France's Nexter Munitions and Germany's Junghans Microtec. The first deliveries will take around 24 months, NSPA Director General Stacy Cummings said.

While addressing reporters in Brussels, Stoltenberg said that he does not see any imminent threat from Russia to any NATO ally. "We do all of this to ensure that we have the forces in place to remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness to protect every inch of NATO territory, and as long as we do that, there will be no attack against the NATO territory," he said. NATO artillery stocks have been drained by shipments to Ukraine in helping its forces fight off Russia's invasion. During Kyiv's offensive in the summer of 2023, Ukraine was firing around 4,000 to 7,000 artillery shells each day, according to European Union estimates.