NATO defence ministers are to meet with the heads of 25 major Western defence companies on Thursday to discuss ammunition production.

According to Euractiv, diplomats and sources in the defence industry this step reflects NATO's interest in being part of defence industry discussions. Western powers look at ways to continue military support to Ukraine and replenish their stockpiles.

Kyiv's Western allies are exploring how to continue sending it the necessary military equipment, governments have asked defence companies to ramp up production, while companies are requesting clear long-term demand signals to justify investment into new production capacities, supply chains and personnel.

NATO has looked at setting up a new Defence Production Action Plan to identify targets for investment and aggregate demand signals from the alliance’s members for the industry.

Representatives of the defense industry hope that this meeting will be a step forward in working on the future action plan. However, according to sources, the official agenda of the meeting has not been published yet, and specific results are not expected.

Among the invitees are predominantly high-ranking officials and executives of defense companies that produce various types of ammunition, such as missiles and rockets.

The meeting with industry representatives "will particularly focus on ammunition that determines the fate of the battle," according to one NATO official on the eve of the meeting.

From the European defense industry, invited companies include Belgian FN Herstal, French-Italian MBDA, Finnish Patria, German Rheinmetall, Norwegian Nammo, KNDS (a merger of German KMW and French Nexter), Italian Leonardo, and Turkish Roketsan.

The participation of representatives from certain industries on NATO's eastern flank is also expected, including Bulgarian Arsenal and Czechoslovak Group from Prague.

From the United States, companies such as Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, which produce missile systems Javelin, HIMARS, and Patriot supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces, are expected to be present.

The list of invited companies will also include drone manufacturers such as Turkish Baykar and Portuguese Tekever, as well as British BAE Systems, Romanian Romarm, Croatian tank manufacturer Đuro Đaković Grupa, Estonian Milrem Robotics, and Belgian Thales.

The NATO Defense Ministers' meeting will take place on June 15-16 in Brussels. As part of the meeting, a session in the "Ramstein format" is planned to discuss the details of the "coalition of destroyers."