Listen to the article
Germany is preparing to spend €377 billion on military equipment including an arsenal of cruise missiles that can reach Moscow, according to a leaked document.
The country’s defence budget, which has been exempted from the constitutional limits on public borrowing, is rising rapidly and due to hit 3.5 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product by 2029, or about €152 billion a year.
The 39-page document lays out €377 billion in desired buys across land, air, sea, space and cyber.
The list includes the purchase of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles with have a range that would allow them to destroy targets deep inside Russia.
The document also revels that air defence is a key priority requiring major investment along with the need to develop a mobile anti-drone capability.
The document is a planning overview of arms purchases that will be spelled out in the German military’s 2026 budget, but many are longer-term purchases for which there is no clear time frame.
The documents show that the Bundeswehr wants to launch about 320 new weapons and equipment projects over the next year’s budget cycle.
Of those, 178 have a listed contractor. The rest remain “still open,” showing that much of the Bundeswehr’s modernisation plan is still on the drawing board.
German companies dominate the identifiable tenders with around 160 projects, worth about €182 billion, tied to domestic firms.
Rheinmetall is by far the biggest winner. The Düsseldorf-based group and its affiliated ventures appear in 53 separate planning lines worth more than €88 billion. Around €32 billion would flow directly to Rheinmetall, while another €56 billion is linked to subsidiaries and joint ventures, such as the Puma and Boxer fighting vehicle programmes run with KNDS.
In air defence, the Bundeswehr aims to procure 561 Skyranger 30 short-range turret systems for counter-drone and short-range protection — a programme fully under Rheinmetall’s lead.
Millions of rounds of rifle ammunition are also being procured.
Diehl Defence emerges as the Bundeswehr’s second major industrial anchor after Rheinmetall. The Bavarian missile manufacturer appears in 21 procurement lines worth €17.3 billion.
The largest share comes from the IRIS-T family, which is set to form the backbone of Germany’s future air defence architecture. According to the document, the Bundeswehr aims to buy 14 complete IRIS-T SLM systems valued at €3.18 billion, 396 IRIS-T SLM missiles for about €694 million and another 300 IRIS-T LFK short-range missiles worth €300 million. Together, these lines alone amount to around €4.2 billion — making IRIS-T one of the most significant single air defence programmes in the Bundeswehr’s planning.
Drones are also gaining ground on the military wish list, seen by Politico.
On the higher end, the Bundeswehr wants to expand its armed Heron TP fleet operated with Israel’s IAI, aiming to buy new munitions for around €100 million. A dozen new LUNA NG tactical drones follow at about €1.6 billion. For the navy, four uMAWS maritime drones appear in the plan for an estimated €675 million, which will include replacement parts, training and maintenance.
Several of the Bundeswehr’s most expensive new projects sit not on land, sea or in the air — but in orbit. The list includes more than €14 billion in satellite programmes, calling for new geostationary communications satellites, upgraded ground control stations and, most ambitiously, a low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation worth €9.5 billion to ensure constant, jam-resistant connectivity for troops and command posts.
The push aligns with Defence Minister Boris Pistorius’ €35 billion plan to boost Germany’s “space security.”
One of the most politically charged plans on the Bundeswehr’s wish list is the potential top-up of 15 F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin, worth about €2.5 billion under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales system.
These would keep Germany’s nuclear-sharing role intact but also retain its reliance on American maintenance, software and mission-data access. It could also signal a further German convergence on American weaponry it cannot replace, just as political tensions deepen over the Franco-German-Spanish sixth-generation fighter jet, the Future Combat Air System.
The same US framework appears across other high-profile projects.
The Bundeswehr plans to buy 400 Tomahawk Block Vb cruise missiles for roughly €1.15 billion, along with three Lockheed Martin Typhon launchers valued at €220 million — a combination that would give Germany a 2,000-kilometer strike reach.
The navy’s interim maritime-patrol aircraft plan, worth €1.8 billion for four Boeing P-8A Poseidons, also sits within the foreign military sales pipeline.
All three tie Berlin’s future strike and surveillance capabilities to U.S. export and sustainment control.
Together, about 25 foreign-linked projects worth roughly €14 billion appear clearly in the Bundeswehr’s internal planning — less than five percent of the total €377 billion in requested spending.
