Germany to authorize record €52B in defense orders

German lawmakers are set to approve 29 military procurement contracts worth a record €52 billion ($61 billion) next week, part of the government's push to transform the Bundeswehr into Europe's strongest conventional army, Report informs via Bloomberg.

The orders cover a wide range of materiel and services, including €22 billion for basic military gear and clothing, €4.2 billion for Puma infantry fighting vehicles, €3 billion for Arrow 3 air-defense interceptor missiles and launchers and €1.6 billion for surveillance satellites, according to people familiar with the planning.

It will mark both the largest number of big-ticket orders and the highest value of government contracts approved by the budget committee in the Bundestag lower house of parliament in a single closed-door session, said the people, who asked not to be identified ahead of an official announcement.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany set aside decades of fiscal restraint to fund the expansion of its neglected armed forces, channeling hundreds of billions of euros into strengthening defense readiness.

Dubbed by former Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a historic turning point, the military expansion has been expanded by his conservative successor Friedrich Merz, redrawing the security architecture in Europe.

Germany's Rheinmetall AG and Franco-German company KNDS NV are the main contractors for the Puma fighting vehicles, while the Arrow 3 air-defense system was jointly developed by Boeing Co. of the US and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Merz addressed his pledge to make the Bundeswehr Europe's strongest conventional army in a townhall meeting with citizens on Monday evening broadcast live on public broadcaster ARD.

"It's very simple, I repeat the same sentence over and over again: We want to be able to defend ourselves, so that we never have to defend ourselves," Merz said, drawing applause from the audience.

"The world around us has completely changed," he added. "I want my children and my grandchildren and their generation to be able to continue to live in freedom and peace and for that we have to be able to defend ourselves."

Merz's ruling coalition of his conservatives and the Social Democrats is aiming to hit NATO's new commitment for core defense spending of 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2029, well ahead of the target date of 2035.