The factory will produce enough ammunition to meet the needs of the German military and support Germany’s partners in Europe.
advertisementGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday participated in a groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction of a new ammunition factory in Unterlüs, Germany.
The factory will help Europe ramp up arms production amidst escalating Russian aggression in Ukraine and political instability, especially in the United States. donald trumpcasting a shadow on NATO’s reliability and durability.
A new ammunition factory is being built by German defense company Rheinmetall on an existing site in a town in Lower Saxony, northern Germany, and will eventually produce around 200,000 shells and explosives a year, and in some cases It is expected to produce other parts, including warheads.
Rheinmetall said production will primarily meet the needs of the German and Bundeswehr armed forces. His priority is to start production as soon as possible, and he expects construction to take about a year.
The company has incurred costs of approximately 300 million euros.
Scholz said on Monday that Rheinmetall is “laying the foundations to independently and above all permanently supply shells to the Bundeswehr and our European partners.”
He added: “We have managed to get by by supplying large volumes of products from stock, but that is becoming increasingly difficult. It is important that we do everything in our power to increase production around the world. ” he added.
Scholz said the new plant is especially important given Ukraine’s ammunition needs.
The 27-nation European Union’s plan to produce one million shells for Ukraine remains unfulfilled, with only about a third of the target reached.