Arrow 3 procurement is now on the agenda for next week's budget committee meeting (presumably defense committee same day - wednesday), along with IRIS-T SLM procurement.
Germany
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Big_Zucchini
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Germany moves ahead with €4 billion purchase of Israel's Arrow-3
The Arrow-3 missile system is the top layer of Israel's defense array, designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside of the earth's atmosphere.
www.jpost.com
Moving forward, 560m euro initial payment, total project in excess of 4 billion euro.
Contract for IRIS-T SLM has been signed, six systems for 950 million including 72 training and 144 live missiles. Contract includes an option for a further 665 missiles in two tranches.
First system delivery is planned for 2024, serial production delivery 2026 to 2027. The missile option tranches can be exercised (at presumably fixed price) until 2027 and 2030 respectively.
The systems are intended for the air force. The army is planned to get IRIS-T SLS.
First system delivery is planned for 2024, serial production delivery 2026 to 2027. The missile option tranches can be exercised (at presumably fixed price) until 2027 and 2030 respectively.
The systems are intended for the air force. The army is planned to get IRIS-T SLS.
The Bundeswehr has now signed a new framework contract for up to 350,000 rounds DiNa155 ammunition.
DiNa155 is a IM-HE-ER round for 155mm/L52 howitzers manufactured by Nammo with a (extended) range of 41 km that includes a "deep intrusion" fuze pit for Diehl-manufactured long artillery fuzes for optional future modification with fuzes like Diehl 2DGMArt, a course-correcting guidance module.
The framework contract runs until 2029 and apparently also includes options for ordering alternative/additional artillery fuzes from Diehl. Current unit cost for the rounds is apparently around 5,800 EUR.
The last artillery ammunition framework contract was signed in 2019 and runs until early next year, hence the new contract now. The previous contract was with Rheinmetall Waffe Munition (RWM) for DM121 155mm rounds and - due to only being ordered to cover running exercise ammunition usage, not stockpiling - had massively smaller overall quantities (about 20% of the new contract, by average annual availability). It was also significantly cheaper at around 3600 EUR cost per round, about 75% of the new price when adjusted for inflation.
Some of the ammunition from the new contract will also be delivered to Ukraine, including an initial batch of 4,700 rounds.
Small correction on above post:
Apparently the options in the current running framework contract (DM121 from RWM) are additionally being fully called up, expanded and delivery times extended to 2026, probably by about 25,000 rounds. This seems to be intended to bridge the gap to the new contract.
There is also a contract for replacement of ammunition delivered to Ukraine, and one to buy new artillery fuzes. Details of this contract are classified, although that may also have to do with recent failures (misfires) of Cold War era fuzes during training in Germany that haven't really made it into the press.
Germany is - supposedly, according to Rheinmetall - currently the sole provider of 120mm and 105mm tank ammunition and 20mm and 35mm medium caliber ammunition for Ukraine though. In addition it looks like most 40mm grenades in use in Ukraine seem to also come from Germany.
Ukraine is mostly mentioned in the above contracts because the funding for that is completely separate from the defence budget, and therefore the contracts are in a mixed dual funding situation. They also like to use that to obfuscate the contracts a bit in the public.
Apparently the options in the current running framework contract (DM121 from RWM) are additionally being fully called up, expanded and delivery times extended to 2026, probably by about 25,000 rounds. This seems to be intended to bridge the gap to the new contract.
There is also a contract for replacement of ammunition delivered to Ukraine, and one to buy new artillery fuzes. Details of this contract are classified, although that may also have to do with recent failures (misfires) of Cold War era fuzes during training in Germany that haven't really made it into the press.
Germany is not a primary provider of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, and does not intend to be, at least in a direct government-to-government fashion. Especially now that providing such has been deferred entirely to the European Union.
Germany is - supposedly, according to Rheinmetall - currently the sole provider of 120mm and 105mm tank ammunition and 20mm and 35mm medium caliber ammunition for Ukraine though. In addition it looks like most 40mm grenades in use in Ukraine seem to also come from Germany.
Ukraine is mostly mentioned in the above contracts because the funding for that is completely separate from the defence budget, and therefore the contracts are in a mixed dual funding situation. They also like to use that to obfuscate the contracts a bit in the public.
I was thinking of what ammunition consumption in Ukraine says about the need for ammunition stocks in case of war, not who is supplying how much to Ukraine.
It applies to far more than just shells, of course. Other munitions, gun barrels . . . Everyone was surprised by the consumption rates of munitions in 1914, & we're re-learning that lesson all over again.
It applies to far more than just shells, of course. Other munitions, gun barrels . . . Everyone was surprised by the consumption rates of munitions in 1914, & we're re-learning that lesson all over again.
Rheinmetall has also signed separate contracts for ammunition deliveries with the government now:
- an expansion of the previous DM121 contract for 127 million Euro, presumably for around 30,000 rounds. These are for immediate delivery, the framework contract expires next year.
- about 330,000 complete rounds 155mm howitzer ammunition for 1.2 billion Euro; this also includes fuzes for the shells and firing charges for PzH2000. This is for a variety of types within Rheinmerall's newer "Assegai" ammunition portfolio, as well as a wider variety of other ammunition Rheinmetall offers in the caliber (also smoke, illumination, more DM121...).
- an expansion of Rheinmetall's framework contract ofr 120x570mm NATO (tank) ammunition. This framework contract was originally signed in 2020 for 203,000 rounds worth 556 million Euro. It is now being expanded to "more than 4 billion Euro" for "several hundred thousand rounds". The 2020 contract was overwhelmingly for inert training ammunition though, only containing a small contingent of 19,000 DM11 ABM-HE rounds . The expansion seems to increase the numbers for these as well as additionally including a more regular HE round.
The Arrow III procurement has now officially been passed by the Bundestag for the full 4 billion.Germany moves ahead with €4 billion purchase of Israel's Arrow-3
The Arrow-3 missile system is the top layer of Israel's defense array, designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside of the earth's atmosphere.
Moving forward, 560m euro initial payment, total project in excess of 4 billion euro.
Waffensystem Arrow: Haushaltsausschuss stimmt Beschaffung zu
Für die Bundeswehr wird das israelische Luftverteidigungssystem Arrow mit Lenkflugkörpern Arrow 3 gekauft.
www.bmvg.de
The deal includes both the weapon systems as well as missiles, an initial spare parts package and crew training.
The new Polaris demonstrator called MIRA built for the Bundeswehr for this contract completed ground tests of its systems this week and had another scale demonstrator perform a campaign of 15 flights to test flight control systems in August and September
It is planned for MIRA to perform its maiden flight and conduct live hot firing a linear aerospike engine before the end of the year. The airspace exclusion zone around Peenemünde airport for this campaign is already in place since September (until end of year), with NOTAMs 48 hours before a test flight would require the exclusion zone to be emptied.
Germany formally handed over its camp in Gao and withdrew its last 142 soldiers from Mali today. 4 soldiers remain at MINUSMA HQ until the end of the week, when that will shut down too. During the 10 years of German participation there about 25,000 individual soldiers deployed to the country (plus another 6,600 individual soldiers for EUTM Mali). The mandate for Mali most recently was up to 1400 soldiers; last month the Bundeswehr still had about 500 soldiers there.
The withdrawal was mostly done using German A400M transport aircraft via Senegal. Some larger equipment (such as a Bison armoured recovery vehicle) was flown out pretty late on two C-17 flights booked from the USAF taxi service after Niger closed its airspace to German flights (Germany has a flight hour contingent with USAF for those C-17, and has used it before for Mali a few times).
This concludes the last of the "big" foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr out-of-area, i.e. outside NATO - where parliament needs to approve a deployment.
The largest remaining deployments are:
The withdrawal was mostly done using German A400M transport aircraft via Senegal. Some larger equipment (such as a Bison armoured recovery vehicle) was flown out pretty late on two C-17 flights booked from the USAF taxi service after Niger closed its airspace to German flights (Germany has a flight hour contingent with USAF for those C-17, and has used it before for Mali a few times).
This concludes the last of the "big" foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr out-of-area, i.e. outside NATO - where parliament needs to approve a deployment.
The largest remaining deployments are:
- the "training and stabilization mission" in Iraq with about 300 soldiers
- UNIFIL (Lebanon) with about 200 soldiers, most of that onboard F125 frigate Baden-Württemberg
- Sea Guardian (Mediterranean) with variable numbers depending on whether there's a ship deployed/assigned to it (ships for this tend to be simply temporarily reassigned from NATO SNMG2 for a few weeks at a time).
SONIX has now been okayed by the defence and budget committees with a budget of 99.8 million Euro, during their last meeting for this year.
Apparently SONIX - long name "Sonar in The Box" - is a containerized solution for "passive acoustic processing and recording" that can be deployed onboard ships. It's basically a containerized sonar buoy processor not integrated to the ship's CMS. Supposedly it can therefore be deployed on any ship. The intended main purpose seems to be to provide multistatic detection capabilities to ships equipped with a hull-mounted sonar, as well as to provide passive torpedo detection capability.
The Bundeswehr apparently has three SONIX systems already, which would be about as many as they can buy without parliamentary approval. The procurement from the 100 billion fond is for buying another 11 systems, plus 12 as options - meaning the Bundeswehr basically seeks to have enough for a fleet-wide deployment.
Producer is Atlas Elektronik, and their sole advertisement for it is a tiny blurp on page 5 of a brochure for their hull-mounted sonars. And an ad on Indiamart, for some reason. They seem to have the system available in other configurations as well, including airborne for helicopters and MPA. The German configuration seems to include a containerized situation analysis center called LADA, which suggests it is also intended for ships without any CMS (such as supply ships, tenders etc). It is unknown to me whether the overall SONIX system also includes a method of deploying sonobuoys, the stated size (three TEU) would suggest it.
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Found an english-language presentation for the "Pontoon Boat" system GDELS developed for paramilitary Civil Defense Agency THW.
The "Pontoon Boat" system is - subject to future funding... - intended by THW to equip their "Water Dangers, Type B" specialized squadrons (47 nationwide, though that's likely to go down somewhat), which primarily provide emergency ferry and waterbourne logistics services for civil protection units. GDELS developed the system to THW requirements under a 4 million Euro research grant from the Federal Ministry of Science and Culture between 2018 and 2021.
The requirements for the system mostly stem from a straight-up replacement of existing modular pontoon ferries THW operates designed in the 1960s. When THW took over used 7-ton trucks from the Bundeswehr around 20 years ago they found that these were too heavy to be carried on the 1960s systems; since then THW has also begun operating some even heavier equipment, so the "pontoon boat" is designed to be able to also carry any of those.
All options shown save for the last ("various connectable") would be within the scope of the equipment of a single specialized squadron.
Further options not shown in the video, but mentioned by both THW and GDELS are:
- using the ramps from the last option and couple them as a fixed short deployable bridge.
- assembling a square platform as a floating helipad.
A prototype of the system was tested in 2022:
This video also shows the BASILISK USV developed within the same project. This is intended as a reconnaissance and mapping drone for the squadron for flooded areas with unknown underwater surface conditions. "Water Dangers" squadrons currently typically operate older assault boats with an installed sonar system for this purpose (in addition to - present in many cases, but not federally financed - UUVs).
The "Water Dangers" squadrons are currently in the process of having their land-side vehicles replaced. For Type B that's a MAN TGS26.430 6x6 truck with a shortened flatbed for carrying a 10' container and an installed crane and winch, along with a Hüffermann Multicarrier trailer for carrying the pontoons - alternatively 20' containers, standard swap bodies, bulk cargo or vehicles up to 12 tons. With the "pontoon boat" system they'd be pretty much fully re-requipped up-to-date for the next couple decades.
The "Pontoon Boat" system is - subject to future funding... - intended by THW to equip their "Water Dangers, Type B" specialized squadrons (47 nationwide, though that's likely to go down somewhat), which primarily provide emergency ferry and waterbourne logistics services for civil protection units. GDELS developed the system to THW requirements under a 4 million Euro research grant from the Federal Ministry of Science and Culture between 2018 and 2021.
The requirements for the system mostly stem from a straight-up replacement of existing modular pontoon ferries THW operates designed in the 1960s. When THW took over used 7-ton trucks from the Bundeswehr around 20 years ago they found that these were too heavy to be carried on the 1960s systems; since then THW has also begun operating some even heavier equipment, so the "pontoon boat" is designed to be able to also carry any of those.
All options shown save for the last ("various connectable") would be within the scope of the equipment of a single specialized squadron.
Further options not shown in the video, but mentioned by both THW and GDELS are:
- using the ramps from the last option and couple them as a fixed short deployable bridge.
- assembling a square platform as a floating helipad.
A prototype of the system was tested in 2022:
This video also shows the BASILISK USV developed within the same project. This is intended as a reconnaissance and mapping drone for the squadron for flooded areas with unknown underwater surface conditions. "Water Dangers" squadrons currently typically operate older assault boats with an installed sonar system for this purpose (in addition to - present in many cases, but not federally financed - UUVs).
The "Water Dangers" squadrons are currently in the process of having their land-side vehicles replaced. For Type B that's a MAN TGS26.430 6x6 truck with a shortened flatbed for carrying a 10' container and an installed crane and winch, along with a Hüffermann Multicarrier trailer for carrying the pontoons - alternatively 20' containers, standard swap bodies, bulk cargo or vehicles up to 12 tons. With the "pontoon boat" system they'd be pretty much fully re-requipped up-to-date for the next couple decades.
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This framework contract has now been massively expanded for a total value of 8.5 billion Euro, with a fixed first call-up order for 880 million Euro. Rheinmetall CEO Pappberger considers this contract Rheinmetall's biggest "in recent history".
From the previous numbers we can deduce this will cover about 2.3-2.4 million 155mm rounds. Production is planned at Rheinmetall's new assembly line in Unterlüß. Deliveries are planned beginning in 2025. The Unterlüß factory is planned to initially go to 100,000 rounds produced per year, later on 200,000 rounds per year.
Part of the ammunition will be procured "on behalf of" the Netherlands, Estonia and Denmark, which together with Germany are intending to "fill up" their depots. Another part is planned to be held for possible deliveries to Ukraine.
Overall new procurement signed off by the defense committee and budget committee this month - they're sorta in a rush before the parliamentary summer break:
- Army:
- the above mentioned artillery ammunition framework contract for initially 880 million Euro.
- upgrading the BAA sensor system of Fenneks assigned to JFST (forward observer) teams to the same standard as those in Fenneks of recce units for 86 million Euro. This is mostly about switching the laser designator.
- Airforce
- framework contract for up to 3266 Brimstone 3 missiles with an initial batch of 378 missiles ordered for 376 million Euro.
- new HUDs for the remaining Tornado wing for 66 million Euro.
- Navy:
- Two additional F126 frigates for 3.1 billion Euro. First of the original four was laid down this month as well.
- development of super sonic strike missile "Tyrfing" with Norway (Mach 3 cruise missile with around 1000 km range) by early 2030s for 650 million Euro.
- a contract change for the ongoing upgrade of F123 frigates regarding changes to its electronic warfare outfit for 103 million Euro.
- German Mission Network Block 2, i.e. completion of new construction of a HQ for the Navy in Rostock for 100 million Euro. The move is considered controversial within the Bundeswehr.
- ASW torpedoes for P-8A Poseidon (Mk54) as foreign military sale from the USA for 122 million Euro.
- Other
- two new communications satellites (COMSATBw 1b and 2b) for 2.2 billion Euro including operational lifecycle cost until circa 2042. These replace the existing two satellites in GEO orbit, with some upgrades. The Bundeswehr press release doesn't mention it, but the project includes a third satellite to be launched to keep the frequencies from being taken over by commercials third-party actors. COMSATBw operator OHB has a mini-satellite model for rapid launch for such purposes, which it has used before (on behalf of Thales Alenia in 2021).
- framework contract for up to 6500 UTF trucks in 3.5-, 5- and 15-ton payload variants including an initial batch of a few hundred for 313 million Euro plus a call-up from the current WLS contract for 1500 UTF trucks. These add to the fleet of currently around 4500 UTF trucks in various variants (+1500 still available from previous contracts). The 4x4 3.5-ton variant is new and not part of the initial batch. Not entirely sure how they are planning to do this with the same supplier, it's not like RMMV has a 4x4 variant of the HX2 that all the others are built on.
- framework contract for up to 60 new airfield firetrucks for 84 million Euro.
- small arms ammunition in 7.62x51 and 9x19 (several million rounds) for 105 million Euro. This is partially to replace deliveries to Ukraine.
- 506 Stinger missiles for 395 million Euro to replace deliveries to Ukraine.
It's a long way off and it makes me wonder if this makes sense by 2042. The trend seems to be going towards pLEOs (Proliferated Low Earth Orbit) constellation as demonstrated by Starlink.
EU/NATO seems to be a natural candidate to run and operate this as a shared infrastructure for members. What I can find is only this, but two and four satellites seems rather limited. (redundancy, coverage)
Part of the technological focus for "BwSATCOM Stage 3" is to improve up/downlink rates for aircraft, e.g. for live transfer of recce data. Starlink, while advertising connectivity for aircraft, is rather lackluster with regard to up/downlink, to an extent where the current (15-year-old!) Bundeswehr GEO satellites provide about the same or better connection.
In addition the new satellites are planned to establish inter-satellite communications between them to act as a global "data highway", similar to how ESA's EDRS GEO constellation works. Can't do that in LEO.
The Bundeswehr is evaluating whether to additionally use the EU's planned IRIS2 constellation for "increased resiliency" and to expand capacity.
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Since the facebook videos in the above post were apparently taken down here's a short presentation of the ponton boat prototype (in ferry, cargo and heli platform configurations) and Basilisk USV on youtube:
Those big-ticket items were
- 105 Leopard 2A8 for 2.9 billion Euro to be delivered 2027-2030. These are intended as a refit for tank battalions of the brigade Germany is permanently stationing in Lithuania.
- 4 Patriot batteries for 1.4 billion Euro. One of them replaces a system delivered to Ukraine (like 4 more ordered in March). Price seems to include a batch of missiles.
- Patriot 2 GEM-T missiles for 200 million Euro replacing ones delivered to Ukraine.
- up to 5800 Trucks, Light, Offroad in a framework contract for 1200 initial batch for 240 million Euro and the rest until 2032 for 1.1 billion. These replace Wolf jeeps in general service. Initial batch deliveries start in Q3/2025.
- framework contract for 155mm artillery ammunition with an initial batch of "several hundredthousand" rounds for 1.3 billion and an overall size of "several million" rounds. Contract is with Nammo and Diehl for DiNA155 ammunition previously ordered last year. To be delivered 2027-2031.
- "several million" rounds of 7.62x51mm ammunition, belted, for machine guns for 452 million Euro. Includes replacement of ammunition delivered to Ukraine.
- second lot of 30,000 individual soldier radios, with helmet headsets for 67 million Euro. First lot of 30,000 was ordered in March.