The Defence Ministers of Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, and Spain signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday (16 July 2021) to modernize the storage and provision of ammunitions. Under the new Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative – or MAWI – participating Allies will create a single set of principles for the storage and management of ammunition stockpiles in various multinational warehouse locations.
“The set-up of the MAWI multinational High Visibility Project is simple, yet highly effective. Following the example of the private sector it allows participants to rationalize their warehousing footprint and drive a greater degree of efficiency into their logistical system. This will free up resources to be re-allocated for higher priority purposes such as advancing NATO’s ambitious innovation agenda,” said Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană.
A key feature of MAWI is its flexibility and adaptability as MAWI solutions can be customized for different circumstances. The MAWI framework also supports the creation of temporary storage facilities in support of NATO missions, where Allies can store their munition for the time of their deployment. Establishing and maintaining MAWI solutions will reduce the costs for deploying and removing munitions for every single new deployment cycle. The first MAWI location is expected to become operational before the end of 2021 with others to follow.
Founded by Belgium, and led by France since January 2020, this multinational NATO initiative is known as the Land Battle Decisive Munitions (LBDM) project. Currently 20 Allies participate – Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom – as well as partner countries Austria, Finland and Sweden. To carry out its missions and tasks, NATO needs Allies to invest in interoperable, cutting-edge and cost-effective equipment. To that end, NATO supports Allies in identifying and developing multinational cooperative projects to deliver the key defence capabilities needed.
