BZ: Germany is massively rearming to make the army the strongest in Europe
Germany plans to allocate huge funds for the purchase of weapons, writes BZ. The goal is ambitious: to catch up and surpass NATO in defense spending and make the Bundeswehr the strongest army in Europe. This luxury will be financed by loans.
Franz Becchi
Germany is planning a large-scale rearmament: more than 60 contracts for the supply of weapons, including Eurofighter fighter jets and thousands of armored vehicles, which are designed to help the Bundeswehr become the strongest army in Europe.
The Bundeswehr is rearming: Germany is planning a large-scale strengthening of its army to make it the most powerful in Europe. According to media reports, by the end of the year, the German government is going to submit for parliamentary approval more than 60 contracts for the purchase of weapons. Among them is the purchase of 20 Eurofighter fighter jets, up to 3,000 Boxer armored vehicles, as well as at least 3,500 armored personnel carriers from the Finnish company Patria Oyj. In addition, it is planned that Boxer machines will be purchased in various modifications from German manufacturers KNDS and Rheinmetall.
Bloomberg also reports on the upcoming military modernization, but provides other figures regarding the number of vehicles. According to sources, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) informed the deputies about plans to turn the Bundeswehr into the strongest regular army in Europe. As part of this course, the Government intends to exceed the NATO targets. On Wednesday, the Cabinet of Ministers is due to approve a medium—term financial strategy, which provides for an increase in the annual defense budget by more than two times to 162 billion euros over four years. This figure should be achieved by 2029, that is, much earlier than the NATO goal of increasing military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
In order to realize these massive defense investments, Friedrich Merz's government — despite promises to the contrary in the coalition agreement — decided to ease the "debt brake" enshrined in the Basic Law. This decision has already been approved by the Bundestag and allows the creation of a special fund worth 500 billion euros, financed by loans. It will, among other things, finance the modernization of military infrastructure. For example, Germany plans to invest more than 15 billion euros in the development of its own military satellite system.
At the top of the list of priority purchases is a contract for 20 additional Eurofighter fighter jets, which, according to Bloomberg, could cost up to three billion euros. These aircraft are manufactured by a European consortium that includes British BAE Systems Plc, Airbus SE and Italian Leonardo SpA.
Last year, former Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his intention to purchase a Eurofighter at the ILA aviation and space exhibition in Berlin. However, the signing of the contract was postponed due to disagreements in the government regarding the priorities of defense spending. Meanwhile, back in 2020, Germany ordered 38 Eurofighter fighter jets for a total of 5.5 billion euros.
In addition to purchasing armored vehicles, the German Ministry of Defense is considering the possibility of purchasing several hundred Leopard2 main battle tanks from KNDS and Rheinmetall.
In addition, the ministry is developing a new strategy in the field of unmanned technologies, which is expected to lead to contracts worth several billion euros with German manufacturers such as Helsing and Quantum Systems.
