Germany seen buying 8-10 units of MEADS defence system at first

26 June 2015

The German armed forces want to order between 8 and 10 units of the MEADS air and missile defence system for the time being, the managing director of manufacturer MBDA Deutschland GmbH said on Thursday.

Thomas Homberg said the number of units that would ultimately be delivered was an "integral part of the talks and negotiations ahead of us".

A spokesman for the German defence ministry said: "The exact number of MEADS that will be procured will be the object of contract negotiations".

Germany said this month it would buy the MEADS system from Europe's MBDA and Lockheed Martin Corp instead of an updated Patriot system offered by Raytheon Co, but said the companies would have to meet demanding performance milestones to retain the contract.

Homberg said the decision gave MBDA planning security and he was "firmly convinced" that many countries in Europe and beyond would be interested in MEADS, adding that talks with some of them were already underway.

MBDA is a consortium that includes Italy's Finmeccanica SpA , Airbus Group and Britain's BAE Systems Plc .

 

reuters.com