Mobile howitzer – Image by Military_Material from Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – The Commission published its first call for proposals Wednesday under a Regulation to support ammunition production funding projects improving Europe’s production capacities of defence products.
The ASAP regulation covering 2023-2025 will allocate EUR 500 million to the support of investment projects worth up to EUR 1.4 billion, in an intensification of support to the European defence industry.
ASAP will address bottlenecks throughout the supply chains of ammunition and missiles in the EU and Norway, by supporting industry to rapidly adjust to new market trends and reduce dependencies.
Key bottlenecks identified in the ammunition supply chains are: explosives, propelling powder, and shells, and supports the missiles production ramp-up. ASAP also addresses the obsolescence, testing, or reconditioning certification of relevant defence products.
ASAP is structured along 5 calls for proposals with the following indicatives budgets:
- Explosives, with a budget of 190 million;
- Powder, with a budget of 144 million;
- Shells, with a budget of 90 million;
- Missiles with a budget of 40 million;
- Testing and Reconditioning certification, with a budget of 4,35 million.
The ASAP Work Programme will support projects aimed at improving the production capacities under different calls, through the implementation of various types of actions. Different topics under specific calls, such as on Explosives and Powder, will address different but complementary needs of the European ammunition supply chain.
To encourage quick and decisive investments in response to the Russian aggression of Ukraine, ASAP foresees a retroactive clause. The ASAP Work Programme therefore allows co-financing of industrial production ramp-up projects that started after 20 March 2023 (i.e. date of the Council agreement on the so-called ‘three-track approach’).
The ASAP Work Programme also foresees the creation of a ‘Ramp-Up Fund’, to facilitate the access to finance of defence manufacturers in the fields of ammunition and missiles, with a budget of 30 million. Its implementation will make it easier for companies across these value chain to access both public and private financing and speed up investments needed to increase manufacturing capacities.
The calls are available from today, with a deadline for submission on 13 December 2023 17.00 CEST, at the following links:
Explosives: Topic 1 ASAP-2023-LS-XPL-STEP and Topic 2 ASAP-2023-LS-XPL-FAST
Powder: Topic 1 ASAP-2023-LS-POW-STEP and Topic 2 ASAP-2023-LS-POW-FAST
Shells: ASAP-2023-LS-SHL
Missiles: ASAP-2023-LS-MIS
Testing & Reconditioning certification: ASAP-2023-LS-TRC
