16 NATO Allies and 3 partners agree to acquire land munitions together

Under the leadership of Belgium, the Defence Ministers of 16 Allies and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Multinational Cooperation for the Provision of Land Battle Decisive Munitions (LBDM) in Brussels during the NATO Summit (11 and 12 July 2018). The Defence Ministers of Austria and Finland will also sign the MOU immediately following the NATO Summit.

At a meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in June 2017, 11 Allies and Finland launched this project by signing a Letter of Intent. Today’s agreement is an important step forward, as it creates the necessary legal basis for participants to jointly acquire and warehouse a wide array of land munitions. 

Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller praised the initiative, saying: “it will increase our ability to share our munitions and work more smoothly and effectively in the field.” She added that “over time, this initiative will help our troops to increase their interoperability and effectiveness where it is needed most” and “help to reduce costs, enabling our rising defence budgets to go even further.”

Following today’s signature, the participants will begin work on an initial round of multinational acquisition.