FT: Germany Seeks to Manufacture More U.S. Missiles at Domestic Factories

Germany is pressing the United States to allow more American weapons to be manufactured at German facilities, as it seeks to close critical gaps in Europe’s military capabilities.

According to the Financial Times, Berlin also sees the expanded defense cooperation as a way to give Donald Trump an incentive to remain engaged in supporting Europe’s defense.

According to people familiar with the matter, German officials are urging their U.S. counterparts to finalize a joint production agreement ahead of the NATO summit, which is set to take place next week in Ankara.

These efforts are part of a broader European initiative to leverage the continent’s defense industrial capacity in order to stabilize its increasingly strained relationship with Washington.

One source said that discussions on “joint production concepts” bringing together German and American industry are already underway.

Another source noted that the talks cover “everything” that could help both countries strengthen their defense capabilities, including the joint production of Tomahawk cruise missiles and PAC-3 interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system.

A third source said that the U.S. response – both from the government and the defense industry – to these proposals has been more positive than expected.

German officials argue that producing critical U.S. weapon systems in the European Union’s largest economy would help Washington address production capacity constraints that have been exacerbated by the conflict with Iran. It would also enable Germany to receive weapons more quickly as it accelerates its rearmament in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Germany’s Ministry of Defense said that “intensive and well-established” cooperation already exists between U.S. and German defense companies. As examples, it cited Rheinmetall’s production of fuselage sections for F-35 fighter jets and the new MBDA–Raytheon facility manufacturing GEM-T missiles for the Patriot air defense system.

According to one source, the German government is in contact with the German subsidiary of the European missile manufacturer MBDA regarding cooperation with the U.S. company Raytheon, the producer of the Tomahawk missile, with the goal of developing a ground-launched version of the cruise missile.

Last month, it was reported that Germany had approached Ukrainian and Israeli companies about the rapid procurement of cruise missiles. The move came after the United States decided not to deploy a unit equipped with Tomahawk missiles to the country.