In remarks to the Warsaw Security Conference, yesterday, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, reported that the NATO buildup against Russia actually began in 2008, that is, after the Russia-Georgia war of that year. “Basically, what happened since 2008, the work started in the military to change our thinking back towards collective defense. That was necessary because of the behavior of Russia, which has been a partner of NATO for more than 15 years, so that was Georgia 2008, Ukraine 2014 and 2022. And the biggest change for NATO was to be ready for more and more aggressive adversary,” he said, reported TASS.
But part of the problem is that NATO is running out of ammunition. According to Bauer, “the bottom of the barrel is now visible.” According to the BBC, he said governments and defense manufacturers now had to “ramp up production in a much higher tempo.” Bauer said decades of underinvestment meant NATO countries had begun supplying Ukraine with weapons with their ammunition warehouse already half-full or even emptier. “We need large volumes. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things—but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing.”
