Six billion euros volume
Budget Committee wants to secure jobs with an arms deal
December 14, 2023, 5:15 a.m
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The Bundeswehr’s depots are empty, politicians complain in connection with weapons requested from Kiev. The Bundestag’s budget committee wants to change that and is ordering weapons and ammunition on a large scale. It also secures jobs. One flying object in particular is causing criticism.
The Bundestag’s budget committee has given the green light for several large armaments projects worth more than six billion euros. This includes the procurement of so-called light combat helicopters and guided missiles for air defense, as was announced at the meeting of the specialist politicians.
A framework agreement for the production and delivery of up to 350,000 pieces of artillery ammunition in 155 millimeter caliber also passed the committee’s table. There were a total of eight projects, including cryptophones, Sonix underwater situational display systems (ULD) and over-snow vehicles.
The largest item is the production and delivery of 500 guided missiles for the Patriot air defense system with a contract value of around three billion euros. A comparatively smaller project is the replacement of guided missiles for the IRIS-T air defense system delivered to Ukraine. A total volume of around 2.6 billion euros is earmarked for the procurement of up to 82 light attack helicopters.
Federal Audit Office criticizes helicopters
The news portal “Business Insider” reported the day before that there was criticism from the Federal Audit Office of the attack helicopter deal with Airbus. This is directed against the financing and criticizes the limitations of the helicopters in terms of combat capability, standing time, assertiveness, endurance and protection of their own forces.
The FDP budget manager Karsten Klein said that the committee’s decision to procure the light attack helicopter and to resume production of the Patriot GEM-T missiles in Germany would strengthen the German economy sustainably and secure jobs. “This is particularly good news for Bavaria as an industrial location, as the helicopter will be built in Donauwörth and the Patriot will be manufactured in Schrobenhausen,” said Klein.