Germany Spends €50B on Military Overhaul to ‘Send Signal’ to NATO

Germany’s parliament approved roughly €50 billion ($59 billion) in defense spending on Wednesday – on everything from missiles, artillery, and torpedoes, to armored vehicles, satellite systems, and new uniforms.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has taken center stage this week, hosting President Volodymyr Zelensky, EU leaders and diplomats, and US envoys for talks in Berlin on a plan to end Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine.

As per AFP, the German defense ministry said that the expenditure across more than 30 different projects  – including on missiles for Patriot and Iris-T air defense systems – would send a signal to NATO and Germany’s partners that it is prepared to take on a larger role in Europe’s defense. 

“We are fulfilling our obligations to the alliance and accepting our responsibility for security and peace in Europe,” they said.

Germany is working towards fulfilling a NATO pledge to allocate at least 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to core defense spending by 2035, with an additional 1.5 percent promised to spending on security more broadly. 

The pledge represents a sharp increase from Germany’s 1.4 percent total in 2022 – one which German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the government would handle “carefully and conscientiously,” as per AFP. 

“Everyone can rest assured that we are very aware of the scale of what we are talking about,” he added.

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During an interview with German media on Tuesday, Merz said that Germany had “had to react” to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of support from NATO.

With no sign of an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and the increasingly frequent appearance of Russian drones and fighter jets in European skies – Merz is not alone in seeing a need for European countries to act on defense.

On Dec. 11, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte gave a speech in Berlin calling for Europe to prepare for “the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.”