Germany is to buy new cruise missiles from Norway to arm its future F-35 jets, under a €677 million ($786 million) agreement signed on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague.
“This arrangement implements what we have set as our goal in Europe and in NATO, joint procurements to reduce time, bureaucracy and cost,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said after the signing. “Thanks to this joint initiative, we will receive the first cruise missiles before the end of 2027.”
The system, known as the Joint Stike Missile (JSM) is a precision-guided long-range cruise missile.
It can be used against targets on land and at sea, the German Defence Ministry said.
The weapon flies under enemy radar and can change course in flight.
The procurement is part of a government deal, financed from a special fund to rearm the German military, the Bundeswehr, as well as the ordinary defence budget.
The German government has ordered 35 stealth F-35 jets from the United States.
They are to be purchased primarily for Germany’s nuclear sharing programme, a NATO deterrence plan in which allies have access to US nuclear weapons in the event of a war.
The agreement coincides with an announcement from London that the United Kingdom intends to purchase at least 12 F-35A fighter jets, which can be equipped with tactical nuclear weapons.
Source: dpa.com
