Canada has signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to explore urgent artillery shell procurement for Ukraine.
Details are being worked out. However, Ottawa could invest 30 million Canadian dollars ($22 million) for the Czech initiative, CBC News revealed, citing sources.
Prague has identified non-EU sources for 800,000 shells, including 500,000 155mm rounds.
Czech President Petr Pavel proposed the plan at the Munich Security Conference last week, urging partner nations to help secure financing.
CBC News quoted Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair as saying: “I’ve entered into the memorandum of understanding with one of our European allies, the Czech Republic, with respect to perhaps acquiring munitions that they currently have in their possession that will enable us to … make them available more rapidly to Ukraine as we ramp up our own production.”
Decision Over Domestic Production
Meanwhile, the Canadian government reportedly has not ramped up munition production after receiving proposals from two domestic manufacturers one and a half years ago.
According to CBC News, allies fear the Czech proposal might provide Ottawa with the wiggle room to further defer investment decisions in domestic munition production.
Bottlenecks
Canada requires an estimated investment of 400 million Canadian dollars ($297 million) to boost domestic production of NATO-standard 155mm shells.
It currently produces around 5,000 155mm shells per month.
“We’re looking hard at making an investment in Canada to increase [munitions] production. The current ammunition situation is unacceptable in Ukraine. It’s unacceptable for NATO. Unfortunately, it’s something that we’ve got to fix,” CBC News quoted Blair as saying, who identified “supply-chain issues” as one of the main reasons for the delay.
Meanwhile, Blair announced Monday that Canada would send 800 SkyRanger R70 multi-mission drones to Ukraine, costing around 95 million Canadian dollars ($70.3 million).