Berlin: Germany’s parliamentary budget committee approved 30 major defence procurement projects worth nearly €50 billion ($59 billion), bringing the country’s 2025 total to a record 103 major procurement projects for €83 billion ($97.5 billion).
The approvals cap three years of unprecedented defence spending that outpace the previous eight years combined.
“We are serious when we say that we are equipping our Bundeswehr to be powerful and resilient, and doing so as quickly as possible,” said German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in remarks following the committee meeting. “All of this shows impressively that we are pulling together.”
Among the most significant projects approved is the SPOCK tactical radar satellite system, a key procurement designed to strengthen the Bundeswehr’s reconnaissance capabilities. The system, developed through a joint venture between Rheinmetall and Finnish specialist ICEYE, will provide the military’s new 45th Armoured Brigade in Lithuania with all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery analysed through artificial intelligence to detect hostile military activity.
In a press release, the Bundeswehr called it a “key project to strengthen the military reconnaissance capabilities of the German Armed Forces.”
The contract is valued at approximately €1.76 billion, with options that could bring the total above €2.7 billion through 2030, according to German media reports.
The committee also approved additional procurement for the Puma infantry fighting vehicle, Germany’s main armoured personnel carrier for mechanised infantry, including increased unit numbers, multi-purpose ammunition for engaging ground and air targets, provisions for future modernisation, and combat training simulators.
Other major approvals include modernisation and expansion of the Patriot air defence system, with increased missile stocks and conversion kits for launch systems, as well as transport vehicles, trailers, and trucks. The committee greenlit procurement of protected medical vehicles and reconnaissance, combat and support vehicles, including artillery and mortar systems and the protected EAGLE command vehicles.
Munitions featured prominently in the session, with approvals for additional IRIS-T SLM surface-to-air missiles, serial production preparation for the TAURUS NEO modular standoff weapon for Eurofighter jets, Meteor air-to-air missiles, and torpedoes for the new U 212 CD submarine class.
Germany is also buying additional launchers and missiles for its Israeli-made Arrow exoatmospheric interceptor system.
The approvals come despite Germany operating under provisional budget rules, a testament to streamlined procurement processes introduced in recent years, Pistorius said.
Between 2023 and 2025, Germany approved 255 major procurement projects worth €188.4 billion, compared to 215 projects totaling €109 billion between 2015 and 2022. The rapid pace of procurements is a direct consequence of Berlin’s hasty pursuit of rearmament since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
