Germany will order 20 more Eurofighter jets, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced, as his government pushes ahead with a multi-billion dollar programme to strengthen its armed forces.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the ILA aerospace exhibition in Berlin, Scholz said the government has launched new defence purchases to meet new security challenges following the outbreak of military conflict in Ukraine in February 2022. He said:
We will be ordering 20 more Eurofighter jets during this legislative period, in addition to the 38 aircraft that are currently in the pipeline. We are also committed to further perspectives for the Eurofighter, including in terms of export.
Scholz’s speech reiterated his pledge that Germany will meet NATO’s defence spending target of 2% of gross domestic product in the long term, even after the €100 billion special fund is exhausted after 2027.
How the government will be able to meet this target, given lower tax revenue forecasts and a strict constitutional restriction on net new borrowing – the so-called debt brake – remains to be seen.
The ruling coalition is currently negotiating next year’s budget, with Defence Minister Boris Pistorius the only cabinet member to be spared belt-tightening by Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
On Wednesday, lobbyists for Germany’s defence industry issued a joint statement saying the special fund is still “far from sufficient to meet the Bundeswehr’s needs.”
They estimate that additional spending from the regular federal defence budget totalling 100 billion euros will be needed by 2028. Options for mobilising funds include creating another special fund, relaxing debt brake rules or “reprioritising” existing funds.
Eurofighter fighters are produced jointly by Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy as part of a consortium. They can be used for both air defence (air/air) and air attack (air/ground). The German Air Force currently has about 138 Eurofighter fighters in service.
