As war rages in Ukraine, Denmark turns an office park back into an arsenal

The old Krudten munitions factory, near the northern tip of Denmark, is a quiet shell of a factory that has stood empty for years despite its legacy of producing bullets, artillery and explosives for the Danish military.

But that’s about to change: With the war in Ukraine fueling growing demand for Western weapons, the Danish government has decided to revive its role in the munitions trade.

In 2008, amid defense cuts that swept across Europe and collapsed global economies, Denmark sold Krudten, the military’s main munitions factory. It was passed around among private companies until October, when the government decided to buy it back, becoming one of the last countries to shift its focus on arms production and counter Russia’s rapidly growing arms industry.

“It was crucial to secure this factory,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in an interview this month, noting increased demand for ammunition across Europe.

“We should be concerned because Russia is increasing production of ammunition and also other types of military equipment,” Poulsen said. “That is why we have decided in the European Union that you have to support countries that are doing what they can to increase production.”

Officials from NATO countries are concerned that Ukraine could run out of weapons early next year as Republicans in Congress have blocked additional U.S. military aid and Hungary vetoed another European Union financial package. Russia’s explosively growing arms industry has caused this palpable fear within NATO – not only because it helped slow Ukraine’s six-month counteroffensive, but also as a sign of Moscow’s growing power.

That has left European countries looking for ways to increase their own weapons production, including relaxing regulations and encouraging investment.

In Krudten – which translates from Danish to “the gunpowder” – officials hope to hire a private company to produce ammunition at the state-owned factory, which is housed in aging brick buildings on a sprawling rural campus.

That’s a model similar to production of military ammunition in the United States, where factories are government-owned but run by private contractors supported by federal funding to quickly adapt to market demands. Early next year, the United States is projected having more than doubled its monthly production of 155-millimeter caliber bullets to 36,000, up from 14,000 when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

But in Europe, where countries have different economies, budget constraints and a range of government regulations for the defense industry, there is no single standard for cooperation with weapons manufacturers. To speed approvals, the European Union is offering financial incentives to states that jointly order large quantities of ammunition and is considering relaxing regulations that industry executives say have curbed production.

The attempt to forge closer ties between governments and manufacturers comes as a… EU campaign Delivering a million 155 millimeter bullets to Ukraine within 12 months is expected to fail. With four months until the March deadline, officials have secured less than half of the shells which were promised because European capitals have been reluctant to invest in arms makers that need more resources and fewer supply chain bottlenecks.

“Overall, our instruments for cooperation are still punching above their weight,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at an annual meeting. European Defense Agency Conference late last month.

That’s what she suggested EU sanctions against states with rising national deficits could be forgiven if higher defense spending contributed to the increase. “This could be a game changer for the union’s defense and its defense industrial policy in these exceptional times,” Ms von der Leyen said.

It will likely be an uncomfortable adjustment for both governments and industry.

“I’m not a big fan of government-owned production, but the starting point for me is that there is extreme demand and there is not enough production capacity,” said Joachim Finkielman, director of the Danish Association for Defense and Security Industries. .

Currently, he said, Denmark gets its military ammunition from foreign manufacturers. Once the Krudten plant is operational, which could take about two years, the government will need to invest sufficiently to ensure that enough ammunition is made to supply the Danish military and export to customers abroad “so that this can be considered a company can function. opportunity,” Mr. Finkielman said.

“The idea of ​​the government intervening, both with a signal of political intent to set up a market and with actually making this factory available for industrial use, I think is an interesting step,” he said.

The Finnish Ministry of Defense announced this month that it will double its capacity to produce a range of heavy ammunition and explosives by the end of 2027. Under $131 million agreement – including $26 million from the government – ​​at least some of the work will be done at a small arms factory operated by Nammo, the Norway-based ammunition company in which Finland has an indirect stake.

“With this decision, we want to demonstrate our long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine and strengthening the defense industry,” Antti Hakkanen, the Finnish Defense Minister, said in a statement.

The willingness to work more closely with industry appears to be most intense in the states closest to Russia’s borders. Some countries in Eastern Europe – included Poland, Bulgaria And Romania — own at least part of their national ammunition producers.

Still manufacturers throughout Europe have repeatedly claimed that their ability to meet the demand for weapons, which has increased significantly due to the war in Ukraine, would require more time and money than most governments are willing to invest.

That’s in stark contrast to Russia, where the economy is controlled by the government of President Vladimir V. Putin and loyalist oligarchs who can order raw materials and labor to be diverted from civilian manufacturers to the arms industry. Over the past two years, Russia has increased its monthly production of long-range missiles to more than 100, up from around 40 in February 2022. Justin Bronka senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a British research organization.

It has also nearly doubled its production of artillery shells, and Mr. Bronk predicted that Russia’s arms industry would “increase significantly” over the next two to three years, even as the West doubts whether to provide more military aid to Ukraine. Almost a third of Russia’s spending next year, or about $109 billion, will be on the military. And for the first time in its modern history, experts have saidRussia will spend 6 percent of the country’s total military output – more than double what it was before the invasion.

“Their entire economy is currently building weapons, building weapons,” Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said this month. “Even the manufacturers that used to make canned goods are actually producing bullets today.”

Ukraine, what was once a main supplier by weapons to the Moscow army when it was still part of the Soviet Union, it is trying to rebuild its own deflated arms industry.

The country has begun working with weapons manufacturers, including in Britain and Germany, and top Ukrainian officials met with U.S. executives in Washington this month to promote production and trade deals that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said would “defend projects could launch that will be of great importance for the future’. the security of all of Europe.”

But Putin appears to be counting on declining Western support to win his war, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview.

“He has been quite open about his idea that if US military aid ends, it will mean that Russia will defeat Ukraine,” Mr. Sullivan said. “I believe Ukraine will stand up and fight no matter what, but their ability to advance and their ability to defend will be significantly limited and reduced by the lack of continued supply of U.S. ammunition and capabilities.”

In Denmark, officials would not discuss how much ammunition the Krudten plant was expected to produce – or how much was produced before it was sold in 2008 to Spanish firm Expal, which was acquired by German ammunition giant Rheinmetall. in August.

The Krudten factory was sold in 2020 to a Danish group that turned the site into an office park. When the factory was put up for sale last spring, the Danish government bought it to ensure it would be used only for ammunition production.

Denmark paid about $2.8 million for Krudten – $200,000 more than it sold in 2008. It will also cost millions of dollars to renovate the buildings and possibly purchase assembly line equipment.

Mr. Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, said he was not aware of any other NATO country that has purchased a production facility to produce more ammunition.

“We have seen serious problems in terms of being able to produce ammunition,” Mr Poulsen said. “Right now Denmark is trying to do what we can.”