November 17, 2022

NATO: more member states join Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative

Source: NATO

Hungary and Romania have joined the Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative, which allows Allies to manage ammunition stockpiles effectively and collectively. In the margins of the autumn meeting of the National Armament Directors at NATO HQ on Wednesday (16 November 2022), the current participants of the Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative (Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the NATO Support and Procurement Agency) welcomed Hungary and Romania to this important High Visibility Project.

The long-term ambition of the Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative is to improve the way NATO Allies and partners store and distribute ammunition stockpiles. This will help to free up resources for other defence purposes.

The project is especially relevant for NATO’s deterrence and defence in the eastern part of the Alliance: it aims to support the Allied contributions to NATO’s eight multinational battlegroups (stationed in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) with a flexible warehousing solution for ammunition stockpiling. “With Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, MAWI has gained significant relevance beyond efficiency improvements only. The expansion of NATO’s multinational battlegroups on the eastern flank requires an upgrade of the logistical support infrastructure to match this scope,” stated Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Wendy Gilmour.

Allies contribute to the battlegroups on a rotational basis, which means their troops and equipment move periodically. Storing their ammunition in a warehouse, instead of moving it with each rotation, prolongs the life-cycle of the ammunition, by reducing the negative impacts of moving it. A first warehousing solution opened in March 2022 in Estonia.