NATO announced this week that a new effort to provide air-to-ground precision-guided munitions to Allies has completed its first delivery.
Officials said NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) received the first lot of Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs), which were acquired through a project involving 11 Allies and one NATO partner.
The project is managed by the NSPA on behalf of the Allies, officials said, noting the NATO members who have joined the effort are Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Finland is participating as a NATO partner.
The PGMs, produced in the United States, will be delivered to their final recipients, Belgium and Denmark, in the coming weeks. The value of this initial acquisition is around $20 million.
The delivery program offers Allies a framework to acquire air-to-ground PGMs in a flexible and cost-effective way. Working through the NATO process allows Allies to draw upon each other’s PGM stocks during air operations or in a possible crisis while also helping NATO and Allies reduce dependence on America for air missions.
“This initiative seeks to address a problem that NATO first encountered during the Libya Operation: when some Allies ran out of their stockpiles of munitions, they found it incredibly difficult to use those of other air forces,” Rose Gottemoeller, NATO deputy secretary general, said. “We realized that we needed a new, flexible approach to the provision of air-to-ground precision-guided munitions. I am happy that this approach is now delivering its first results.”