NATO, Industrial Resilience, And Battlefield Transparency

Since the 2023 Vilnius Summit, NATO has recognised industrial capacity as a core element of deterrence. The Alliance has endorsed the Defence Production Action Plan, adopted the Industrial Capacity Expansion Pledge, and aligned with parallel US and EU initiatives, the National Defence Industrial Strategy and the Act in Support of Ammunition Production to accelerate output, standardisation, and supply-chain resilience. Yet policy vocabulary has advanced faster than procurement logic. The return of industrial war, combined with a sensor-saturated battlefield, means that design choices now carry direct operational consequences. Manufacturability, supply substitution, repairability, and distributed production potential are variables of combat endurance. This article argues that NATO's real gap is not only an industrial-capacity gap, but also an industrial-operational doctrine gap: the Alliance has not yet fully integrated production resilience and battlefield transparency into a mature procurement doctrine suited to prolonged high-intensity conflict.