Kyiv's Western partners are trying to find a way to ensure that weapons and ammunition reach Ukraine without letting their stockpiles deplete to the point that it could jeopardize their own level of combat readiness, FP reported.

“I think everyone now is sufficiently worried,” a NATO official said. “The relevance of stockpiling is back.”

NATO is currently discussing how to help member nations if their stockpiles fall below levels vital to their defense responsibilities under the North Atlantic Treaty. Although decisions on defense assistance to Ukraine fall to individual alliance members, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly expressed the need for standing offers to Ukraine.

“Even if there wasn’t the Ukrainian fight, our stockpiles are still too low,” said Jeb Nadaner, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy during the Trump administration. “You don’t have to invent the weapons of the 22nd century to do this, but the industry will need a stable demand signal.”

Behind the scenes, the U.S. and other NATO members have pleaded with Western defense companies to speed up production.  The latter are demanding assurances that the current increased appetite will not go down.

“What they say is essentially show me the money,” said Mark Cancian, who served as chief of the Pentagon’s force structure and investment division until 2015. “Their fear is that the war will end and the orders will end and they will end up with these expanded factories that don’t have any orders to fill them.”