NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called on Tuesday for a "transatlantic defense industrial revolution" and urged companies to take more risks with their investments.
"The hum of machinery must become a roar," Rutte told the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in Ankara ahead of a gathering of the alliance's leaders in the Turkish capital.
"Industry across all of the nations represented here must be ready to take more risk. The demand is there, and you know it."
Rutte's remarks came as allies started to reveal large-scale defense investment pledges at the industry forum, including an initiative to spend $40 billion on the alliance's drone defense capabilities.
"NATO is rapidly expanding our ability to deploy and operate drones at scale. And at the same time, we are building robust counter-drone defenses to detect, identify, and neutralize drones," said Rutte.
"Allies are investing over $40 billion in counter-drone capabilities over the next 5 years," he said, as well as planning to step up operational training for soldiers.
NATO's ability to deal with hostile drones was put to the test lately as Russian drones repeatedly violated allies' airspace. NATO occasionally intercepted drones with fighter jets, raising questions about the efficacy of the alliance's approach.
Several allies are also to jointly buy up to 10 Saab GlobalEye aircraft to replace NATO's fleet of 14 AWACS early warning radar surveillance planes that are about 50 years old.
The announcements are part of NATO's push to significantly increase defense expenditure.
Rutte urged allies to slash administrative hurdles to rapidly expanding the alliance's defense capabilities.
"We need a bonfire of red tape in our procurement and in our cross-border regulation," he said.
"Both government and industry must continue investing in production capacity. Governments must also create the conditions for industry to expand and cooperate," he added.
In 2025, European allies and Canada reported an annual increase in their defense expenditure of 20%, or an extra $139 billion, Rutte said, but industrial capacities would have to grow rapidly to meet the growing demand.
NATO is also to release "for the first time a consolidated demand signal outlining our requirements," Rutte said.
NATO allies aim to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense and related expenses by 2035 in a bid to quickly boost defense capacity.
"We are moving in the right direction. The strategy is clear, but the match is far from over. And to win it, we need all team members to pull their weight," Rutte said.
