As Germany rearms, it is spending a lot of money to buy a lot of new equipment. But while that money is direly needed, it will not be enough unless the country’s highly bureaucratic defense acquisition process is reformed at the same time. Germany’s military procurement is slow and designed for peacetime rather than today’s volatile security environment. It is also not designed for the kind of fast technological change we are seeing as the war in Ukraine continues.
The good news is that Germany’s military planners are taking on the challenge. The Financial Times reported late last month that the Ministry of Defense is looking to acquire several thousand “kamikaze drones”—a type of airborne munition that can loiter over a target before striking it, destroying itself in the process. Such systems have shown their military usefulness in Ukraine, as well as in the confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020. It is not entirely clear how far along the contracts for these drones are: The FT reported that formal agreements have yet to be signed, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has only confirmed that the manufacturers are participating in tests until the end of the year,.
Setting aside the question of timing, the process through which these drones are being acquired is nothing short of revolutionary. The contract is reported to be distributed among three actors: two-year-old defense startup STARK, the European defense unicorn Helsing and Germany’s prime contractor, Rheinmetall. Under the agreement—worth 300 million euros for each company—the firms agree to provide up to 12,000 drones, according to the FT.