Slovakia, one of the few EU member states where artillery shells are manufactured, is set to dramatically expand its production of crucial artillery munitions desperately needed by Ukraine’s armed forces, the country’s Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď announced last week in Kyiv.
The defense minister, who traveled to the Ukrainian capital on Friday, March 31st along with Prime Minister Eduard Heger, declared that Slovakia intends on increasing its production of 155-millimeter artillery rounds, the standard NATO artillery munition, by fivefold, the Slovak daily newspaper Denník N reports.
“We are taking specific steps to increase the production of 155-millimeter ammunition at our facilities by five times,” the minister pledged, emphasizing that the artillery round is in exceptionally high demand as a result of the breakneck pace at which Ukrainian forces are burning through European stockpiles of it.
Nad’ was sure to highlight the significant amount of aid Slovakia has already provided to Ukraine, noting that the Slovak government had sent the S-300 air defense system, 30 BP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, and 13 MiG-29 fighters.
“We have two companies that know how to produce 155 mm ammunition,” Nad’ said, referring to ZVS Holding, owned by the Slovakian state along with the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) of the Czech businessman Michal Strnad, and VOP Nováky which is entirely in private hands.
The two companies, in the year before the war’s outbreak, produced around 20,000 rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition, the defense minister said. Production, this year, however, is expected to increase to 30,000 rounds, Nad’ continued, adding that as many as 150,000 pieces of the ammunition could be manufactured with financial and material support provided by the European Union.
Significant production increases would require investments to the tune of millions of euros in machinery, infrastructure, and automation, the Defense Ministry has said, although it has yet to specify the amount that would be needed.
“The European Defence Fund, the European Investment Bank, and the search for resources directly in the EU budget are being considered. The Slovak government is discussing with the Commission how to use this option for our industry,” the Defence Ministry says.
According to a report from the Slovakian newspaper Pravda, the Ukrainian government is expected to receive no less than one million rounds of 155-mm artillery ammunition from European Union member states in the next 12 months, with the bloc having to allocate two billion euros to production and supply of the ammo.
Presently, Russia fires “between 20,000 to 50,000 artillery rounds per day” while Ukraine launches “4,000 to 7,000 artillery rounds daily” in southeast Ukraine, an EU memo dated 13 March 2023, stated.
