After more than half a year of consumption, the equipment assistance capabilities of NATO allies to Ukraine are gradually being stretched. Western media even broke the news that the Ukrainian army was asked to "calculate the price before firing."

According to Western media reports on November 27, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its 10th month, the U.S.-led NATO front is having trouble replenishing Ukraine's arms arsenal - arms and ammunition are being used up too fast.

There are various signs that the ability to supply arms will become a key factor in the Russia-Ukraine war of attrition in the next stage.

NATO officials relatively said that during the war in Afghanistan, NATO troops fired about 300 rounds of artillery shells a day, and at the same time they did not have to worry about air defense issues.

But in addition to destroying thousands of artillery shells every day, the Ukrainian army also faces pressure from the Russian Air Force.

Camille Grand, a defense expert on the Council of Europe’s Foreign Relations Committee, described that Ukraine consumes more in a day than Afghanistan does in a month.

Grand was until recently NATO's assistant secretary-general for defense investment.

Arms production capacity cannot keep up. Senior NATO officials revealed that during the Battle of Donbass, Ukrainian artillery fired 6,000-7,000 rounds of artillery shells per day, while the artillery fired by the Russian side could reach 40,000-50,000 rounds per day.

For comparison, the United States' artillery shell production capacity is approximately 15,000 rounds per month.

More importantly, the Ukrainian army's "demand list" contains a large amount of Soviet-era equipment, including T72 tanks, S-300 air defense missiles, and artillery shells adapted to the caliber of Soviet equipment.

After spending the better part of a year on the Ukrainian front, stock levels of these old items are becoming precarious.

At the same time, in the face of a war of attrition that is getting longer and longer, the more expensive anti-aircraft missiles and individual "Javelin" missiles in the Western military aid list are also beginning to run out of inventory. NATO is trying to produce some old-fashioned equipment for emergency relief.

Many governments have sent signals to the military industry, asking them to hire more shifts of workers and restart old production lines.

These arms demands have also begun to spill over to industries in other countries such as South Korea.

It is reported that NATO has even considered investing in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria to restart the production of 152- and 122-caliber artillery shells suitable for Ukrainian artillery.

What makes the problem even more complicated is that the military industry within NATO is very regional.

For NATO countries, their own military equipment rarely adapts to artillery shells produced by other NATO countries, which also means that equipment manufacturers can continue to sell artillery shells.

At the same time, many NATO countries also have legal restrictions on the transfer of weapons. For example, Switzerland refuses Germany to transfer anti-aircraft ammunition produced by it to Ukraine.

This situation also makes the equipment status of the Ukrainian army extremely mixed.

NATO officials once called Ukraine's weapons systems NATO's "weapons zoo," referring to the fact that the Ukrainian army has German "Cheetah" anti-aircraft tanks and French "Sidewinder" surface-to-air missile systems.

Ammunition supply and maintenance for these weapons are increasingly becoming problems.

NATO's own supply problems also exist. NATO has required member states to increase military spending to 2% of GDP by 2024, of which at least 20% must be spent on equipment.

NATO officials revealed that when the conflict broke out in February this year, the weapons inventory levels of many countries were less than half of the ideal level, and the progress of common weapons between countries was not smooth.

Even excluding the United States, the cost of joint development of weapons and equipment among EU member states accounts for only 18% of the total.

What is even more embarrassing is that after more than half a year of consumption, the arsenals of NATO countries are also in a critical state.

After the conflict escalated, France sent at least 18 sets of Caesar self-propelled artillery systems to Ukraine, accounting for 20% of the country's inventory of artillery systems, so it is now reluctant to supply more weapons.

The EU has set up a compensation fund of 3.1 billion euros for member states that provide weapons assistance to Ukraine, but nearly 90% of this money has now been spent.

At the NATO level, member states have provided arms worth 40 billion euros to Ukraine, which is close to the annual military expenditure level of France.

NATO officials revealed that currently nearly 20 of the 30 member states have no spare capacity, mainly small countries.

Other major countries such as Germany, France, and Italy have the potential to further provide equipment.

NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg has emphasized to countries that NATO's inventory level guidance should not be a restriction that hinders the provision of assistance to Ukraine.

However, the United States, France, and Germany are also deliberately controlling the equipment level of the Ukrainian army to prevent NATO weapons from directly hitting the Russian mainland.

At least for now, a variety of weapons and equipment that the Ukrainian army has always wanted have not been included in the military aid list, including long-range surface-to-surface missile systems, fighter jets, tanks from Western countries, and more advanced air defense missile systems.

Even under such restrictions, Ukraine's use of some weapons still worries NATO.

For example, in order to attack the Russian Snake Island position 50 kilometers away from the front line, the Ukrainian army mounted a French Caesar artillery with a range of 40 kilometers on a tugboat and drove it 10 kilometers. This operation also shocked the French army.

The Ukrainian army also modified drones to launch attacks on Russian naval ships.