New NATO member bolsters ammo production

Finland has ramped up production of ammunition fivefold to help Ukraine fight Russia, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has reported.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the new Estonian prime minister, Kristen Michal, in Helsinki on Wednesday, the host said both nations “agree that Russia cannot win its war” and have to support Kiev.

“Finland has increased its ammunition production [by] five times. It needs to happen in the whole EU as well,” Orpo said, calling the boost of arms manufacturing “a shared business opportunity, but also shared security landscape” for the political bloc.

In February, Finnish officials set the fivefold increase as the target for production at the Nammo Lapua artillery munitions plant, which the Nordic nation co-owns with Norway.

Helsinki has longer-term plans to expand its weapons industry and double its ammo manufacturing capacity by 2027, according to the Defense Ministry. The expected investment was announced last December and estimated at €120 million ($132 million), of which the Finnish government would provide around €24 million.

Some of the funding comes from the EU via the ASAP (Act in Support of Ammunition Production) fund. The Nammo Lapua plant was granted €22.5 million by the EU to ramp up the manufacture of 155mm shells, while another €10 million will be invested in the Nammo Vihtavuori gunpowder plant, the ministry announced in March.

The Finnish government is also considering building a new factory to produce military-grade high explosives.

During the press conference, the two prime ministers endorsed Kiev’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, claiming that it was justified by Ukraine’s right to defend itself.

Moscow has described the ongoing Ukraine conflict as a US-led proxy war on Russia waged by NATO nations. Finland joined the military bloc last year, breaking a tradition of defense neutrality which it had maintained since the end of World War II.