West underestimates scale and volume of ballistic missile production, says NATO admiral

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, Admiral Pierre Vandier, sees a need to rapidly ramp up the production of anti-missile systems to defend against the ballistic missile threat.

The alliance’s commander for transformation made this statement in an interview with Ukrinform.

“I think the West has not considered the width and the scale of the production of ballistic missiles,” Vandier stated.

He explained that NATO is working to find the optimal balance in the use of weapons so that they are effective against specific targets.

“We had a warning, for example, about the Houthis in Yemen, that such a small country was able to strike the maritime traffic with ballistic missiles. This should have warned us,” he underlined.

Responding to a question about NATO’s plans to replenish anti-missile stocks for the Patriot air defense systems, Vandier added that, at the time, the production line for complex missiles was not as efficient.

“And so I think we are in a moment where we are in a hurry. We need to ramp up this production, and it's a complex weapon. So it will take some time,” the alliance’s commander for transformation concluded.

As reported by Ukrinform, following the Ramstein meeting, Ukraine received a new batch of PAC-3 missiles for the Patriot air defense missile system from Germany.

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