In a proposal to win economies of scale, Danish Defence Minister Nick Hækkerup (SocDem) is to propose to his NATO colleagues today that the alliance should share bombs and weapons in order to have bigger stockpiles and save money.

“Let us purchase together, let us stockpile ammunition together,” Hækkerup tells Jyllands-Posten.

“The greater the number of countries in the pot, the greater the number to ensure that prices and operational costs remain low,” Hækkerup adds.

Hækkerup’s proposal comes in the wake of plans for Danish defence cutbacks and following U.S. criticism of the recent Libya campaign during which several NATO members ran out of ammunition.

Both U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen are expected to support the idea when Alliance defence ministers meet in Brussels today.

But Professor Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen of the Centre for Military Studies at Copenhagen University says that while there may be economies of scale, such a proposal may affect the independence of the militaries of the individual NATO countries.

“It is not without risk and you lose some political independence. But on the other hand, the countries can go far together,” Vedby Rasmussen tells Jyllands-Posten.

The Danish Liberal Party is also in favour of the idea as long as Denmark would continue to be able to defend its own territory, according to Liberal Defence Spokesman Hans Christian Thoning.

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