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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned on Monday that Europe needed to massively and urgently ramp up arms production and that the continent was currently “not in a time of peace.”
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for Rheinmetall’s new military factory, Scholz said European countries must pool orders and funds to provide defense industries with purchase guarantees for decades to come.
“This is urgently needed because of the painful reality that we are not living in times of peace,” he said, pointing to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We have to move from arms manufacturing to mass production,” he said, arguing that “those who want peace must be able to successfully deter aggressors.”
Burdened by its militaristic past, Germany has become wary of its armed forces and defense industry in recent decades.
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However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reversed Berlin’s post-World War II pacifist tendencies and forced its transformation into a supporter of large-scale rearmament.
Germany is currently Ukraine’s second-largest arms supplier, and Scholz is urging other EU countries to provide more.
Scholz said what happens in Ukraine will determine “if we have a peaceful order, if we have a future in a rules-based world,” adding that Russia is “trying to swallow its neighbors by force.” must fail,” he added.
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The Prime Minister also reiterated that arms commitments to Ukraine by other EU countries remain insufficient.
The EU has set up a co-financing mechanism to meet Ukraine’s arms needs, but has struggled to meet promised deliveries.
Brussels has pledged to provide Ukraine with one million shells by March 2024, but the EU admitted last week that it could only produce just over half that amount by the deadline.
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Scholz emphasized that the key is to shift gears from years of underinvestment in the defense sector to building much-needed production capacity.
“Tanks, howitzers, helicopters, air defense systems are not on the shelves. If nothing is ordered for years, nothing will be produced,” he warned.
Rheinmetall’s new plant in Unterluss is scheduled to start production in 2025 with an initial production capacity of 50,000 rounds per year, which will gradually reach a maximum annual production capacity of 200,000 rounds.
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Considering the volume, Scholz said that thousands of shells are currently being fired every day on the front lines in Ukraine.
Moreover, the German military’s arsenals were “pretty empty” even before the war.
Rheinmetall boss Armin Pappelger said the new factory was aimed at securing Germany’s “strategic sovereignty in the field of large-caliber ammunition.”
The company aims to mass produce up to 500,000 shells throughout this year, a sevenfold increase from its pre-Ukraine war production of 70,000 shells a year.
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