NATO developing 10-year plan to rebuild Ukraine’s defense industry

NATO is developing a 10-year plan to rebuild the Ukrainian defence industry, with the first meeting between the alliance and Kyiv slated for next week.

The meeting will be the start of a long process hinted at for weeks by U.S. and NATO officials of a long-term commitment to Ukraine to bring it closer to the alliance in both training and equipment, Politico reported on October 12.

“We will be looking at defence planning requirements to get Ukraine fully interoperable with NATO,” said a senior NATO official who asked not to be named due to ground rules for speaking to reporters during alliance meetings in Brussels this week. “It’s about shifting away from Soviet equipment … to NATO-compatible Western equipment.”

The top acquisition officials from the alliance already met this month to start planning ways to help the Ukrainian defence industry while simultaneously replenishing their own stocks of weapons and equipment that have been donated to Kyiv since the start of the war. This new NATO-led effort will focus only on Ukraine, however.

“We’ll be looking at ways to try and rebuild Ukraine’s defence industry,” the official said.

While NATO lays plans to bolster Kyiv’s ability to arm itself against Russia, the months of missile attacks across Ukraine have emptied out Moscow’s supply of modern weapons. “They’ve certainly depleted a good portion” of their precision-guided munitions since the start of the war, a second senior NATO official told reporters.

Around half of the missiles, Russia fired at civilian targets in recent days were intercepted by Ukrainian air defences, which mostly consist of older, Soviet-era equipment, calling into question Russia’s ability to hit targets. “All signs are that Russia has targeted civilians throughout the war … it likely will continue,” the official said.

In remarks kicking off the contact group’s meeting on October 12, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “our support for Ukraine’s right to defend itself doesn’t hinge on the outcome of any particular battle. Our resolve to support Ukraine’s defenders extends through all seasons.”

The coming winter months could be a test of Western resolve in Ukraine, as the fighting will likely bog down in the mud and cold weather across Ukraine. But Austin pledged not to lose focus, adding “we are increasingly posturing ourselves to support Ukraine’s defence needs for the challenging months and years ahead.”