Germany buys Airbus civil helicopters and rebuilds them for combat – Business Insider

BERLIN, March 18 (Reuters) – The German Defense Ministry plans to buy 82 Airbus (AIR.PA) H-145M civilian helicopters and convert some of them into attack helicopters to replace its Tiger fighter fleet, Business Insider reported, citing military internal documents.

Germany changed its defense policy last year after Russia invaded Ukraine, allocating 100 billion euros ($107 billion) to modernizing the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces.

Berlin, which has been reluctant to upgrade Airbus’ Tiger attack helicopter due to operational problems, plans to buy the 82 planes for 3.05 billion euros ($3.3 billion) and arm 24 of them with anti-tank missiles, according to the German news agency called.

The Ministry of Defense could not immediately be reached for comment.

The H-145M helicopters are approved for military use but not designed as combat aircraft, and the Bundeswehr has concerns about the machine’s combat capability and crew protection that the ministry has so far ignored, the report added.

The Bundeswehr sees the planned procurement as “a purely political decision that ignores operational requirements,” said Business Insider, citing a letter from the Bundeswehr’s Technical Service for Aircraft and Aviation Equipment (WTD 61) to the Ministry of Defense.

($1 = 0.9376 euros)

Reporting by Riham Alcousaa; Adaptation by David Holmes

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source