On 15 March 2024, the European Commission announced the selection of 31 projects under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production, or ASAP. More than €500 million in EU and Norwegian funding was allocated to expand ammunition and missile production capacity, with industry co-financing expected to bring total investment to around €1.4 billion.
The programme was created in response to the need to rebuild stockpiles and increase European output. Its central purpose was not to buy ammunition already available, but to strengthen the industrial base so that more could be produced.
Where the bottlenecks were
An ammunition production line does not depend only on final assembly. It requires explosives, propellant powder, metal casings, components, testing and certification. If one of those inputs is unavailable, the whole production chain can slow down.
The Commission therefore directed a substantial share of funding to powder and explosives, identified as critical bottlenecks. The portfolio also included shells, missiles and testing or reconditioning capacity.
Why capacity cannot be created in weeks
Expanding output requires machinery, production lines, buildings, permits, raw materials and skilled workers. Safety requirements are especially demanding in explosives manufacturing and limit how quickly facilities can be expanded.
Industry will only make large investments when there is enough visibility on future demand. A company is unlikely to build a new plant to serve a temporary spike. Public programmes and medium-term contracts can reduce that risk.
The role of co-financing
ASAP uses public funding to unlock larger investment. The logic is that an EU contribution covers part of the cost and makes capacity expansion more attractive to industry.
This is a common industrial-policy model: public money does not fully replace private capital but steers it toward capabilities considered strategically important.
Production and strategic autonomy
Ammunition is a clear example of how security depends on industrial supply chains. A country may own advanced systems but have limited operational endurance if stockpiles are small or replenishment is slow.
The same logic applies to electronics, engines and critical materials. Resilience does not require eliminating every external dependency, but it does mean preventing a single weak point from stopping the availability of an essential capability.
From funding to real output
Announcing an industrial programme does not automatically produce more ammunition. What matters is when new lines enter service, actual production volumes, quality and delivery time.
That is why programmes such as ASAP need to be assessed over time. The Commission said the effort was designed to support European capacity toward roughly two million shells per year by the end of 2025. But headline volume is only part of the picture: availability across different calibres and components also matters.
An industrial policy for security
ASAP represented a shift because it used the EU budget to directly support defence-production capacity. It therefore connects security, industry and technology.
The broader lesson is that military capability rests on productive infrastructure that often remains invisible until it becomes insufficient. Chemical plants, machine tools, testing facilities, metalworking and supply chains sit behind every defence-budget figure. ASAP was designed to strengthen that material base.
