USA approve:

Sale of hundreds of Patriot missiles to Germany

The US State Department has approved the possible sale of 600 Patriot missiles to Germany. The air defense weapons have an estimated value of five billion dollars (4.54 billion euros), the Pentagon announced on Thursday.

"The proposed sale will enhance Germany's ability to counter current and future threats and increase the defense capabilities of its military," it said in a statement.

The prime contractor for the potential arms deal, which also includes related equipment and technical support, will be US defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

Germany must quadruple its air defenses
According to the new NATO defence plans, Germany must quadruple its air defenses to protect its infrastructure and armed forces in the event of serious tensions or war, security sources said last month. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany has handed over three Patriot air defense systems to Kiev and still has nine units of its own. During the Cold War, when Germany was on NATO's external border, the Bundeswehr still had 36 such systems in its inventory.

At the beginning of the year, some NATO members announced an order for up to 1000 Patriot systems. In addition to Germany, these included the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. It can be assumed that Berlin intends to use the order to increase its own stocks and make further deliveries to Ukraine.