NATO to make fresh push for common arms standards

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -NATO will make a fresh push for common munitions standards, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday, aiming to drive down costs and improve ease of use on the battlefield as the alliance draws lessons from Russia's war with Ukraine.

"This is not easy but it's quite crucial," Rutte told reporters in Brussels ahead of a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers on Thursday and Friday.

He added that defence production needed to be further increased to enable NATO's deterrence and defence.

"Standardization will help here, also, of course, in a situation in which NATO countries have to really go to war ... that you know you're totally interoperable and that the standards are there," he said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior NATO official said battle-decisive ammunition will be the priority as the new initiative kicks off, to be followed by other equipment.

Senior military officials have deplored NATO's backsliding on standardisation in past decades and have attributed it to a defence market that has shrunk drastically since the end of the Cold War when NATO countries spent 3%-6% of GDP on the military.

Western nations have been scrambling to boost the output of battle-decisive ammunition like artillery shells as Ukraine, at times firing thousands of rounds a day, has been burning through supplies much faster than allies can produce them.

Although there is a NATO standard for artillery ammunition, its implementation is voluntary and a lack of adherence has fragmented the market and hampered the flow of supplies as 14 NATO nations have reserved the right to deviate.

Different 155mm rounds can still be used in all howitzers but operators need to enter the specification of the shells when loading them into the weapon or risk missing targets by as much as 50 or 60 metres (160 to 196 ft), according to artillery experts.

But the firing tables - documents meant to provide the technical specifications - were neglected over a long period. NATO says it is now close to fixing that problem.

"Those firing tables have been allowed to lie fallow for quite a long time. We are close to having them completed for the first time since the Cold War," the official said, calling it an important step forward to more interoperability between allies.

Beyond Rutte's initiative, around 10 allies, including Britain, Germany and the United States, will sign a letter of intent on Thursday on driving forward the standardisation of artillery munitions in particular, the NATO official said.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Porter)