The European Commission is worried about the shortage of ammunition and missiles in the Ukrainian army and armies of member states.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on 3 May a new package of measures aimed at supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia. The EC’s plan envisages a boost to the EU defense industry capacities in ammunition production to help member states refill their stocks and urgently deliver ammunition and missiles to Ukraine.

The Commission said in a press release it has adopted a 500-million-euro Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) as a response to track 3 of the plan agreed by the EU Council on 20 March. 

”Ukraine is heroically resisting the brutal Russian invader. We stand by our promise to support Ukraine and its people, for as long as it takes. But Ukraine's brave soldiers need sufficient military equipment to defend their country. Europe is stepping up its support on three tracks. First, member states are delivering additional ammunition from their existing stocks, with new European Peace Facility support of 1 billion euros. Second… we will procure jointly more ammunition for Ukraine - and we are making available an additional billion euro for that. And today, we are delivering on the third track. Ramping up and speeding up the defense industrial production of ammunition in Europe,” von der Leyen said.

The ASAP will strengthen the responsiveness and ability of the Union defense industry to ensure the timely supply of ammunition and missiles in Europe. In light of the return of high intensity conflict in Europe, the timely availability in sufficient volumes of these products is critical for our security and for our continuous efforts to support Ukraine, the release goes on.

The Commission has also proposed a new regulation that would serve as “a financial instrument” to support the reinforcement of the Union's industrial production capacities for the relevant defense products and as a mechanism to map, monitor and better anticipate the existence of bottlenecks in these supply chains.

Financial support would be provided in the form of grants to various types of actions contributing to a faster increase of production capabilities of the European defense. Applicants would enjoy a swift resolution of their requests for funding and simplified clearance procedures by procurement authorities.

The regulation under ASAP would provide for the following measures:

• Optimizing, expanding, modernizing, upgrading or repurposing existing production capacities;
• Establishing new production capacities;
• Establishing cross-border industrial partnerships, including through public-private partnerships, aiming, for instance, at securing access to or reserving stocks of strategic components or raw materials;
• Building up and making available reserved surge manufacturing capacities;
• Testing or reconditioning (to address obsolescence) processes with a view to making existing ammunition and missiles useable;
• Reskilling and upskilling related workforce.

The Commission will seek the approval of the ASAP in the European Parliament before the summer 2023.

The release does not specify the types of ammunition or quantities. Since February 2022, the EU's Ukraine assistance bill has reached almost 40 billion euros, including military aid of at least 3.5 billion euros. This amount does not include the support from individual member states. 

In the United States meanwhile the White House pledged a new military aid package worth 300 million dollars. The package will include, among other things, additional ammunition for the HIMARS MLRS, howitzers, artillery shells and rockets, anti-tank systems, trucks and trailers for transporting heavy weapons.