www.zerohedge.com By Tyler Durden
A major new trend which has been heating up on Europe’s periphery over the last years of war in Ukraine has been the use of suicide drones and drone swarms, which have proven effective as well as frightening for anyone on the receiving end.
This has resulted in more European countries making it a priority to invest in this type of warfare, as the Ukraine battlefield has demonstrated that this relatively cheap weaponry can inflict devastating costs and destruction on an enemy. There’s also lately been a phenomenon of European countries like Denmark, Poland, and Germany alleging an increased number of ‘mystery’ drone incidents where their airspaces get breached.
Germany’s parliament on Wednesday approved the first €540 million tranche to procure the Bundeswehr’s own suicide drones, as Berlin is racing to integrate loitering munitions into its force structure.
The broader procurement framework was initially projected to reach a whopping €4.4 billion over the coming years. This sudden reversal of German ‘neutrality’ and willingness to go to opposite extremes with massive spending on defense has been a trend spurred on by fears of ‘Russian aggression’ against the continent.
However, the Bundestag’s budget committee reportedly capped the program at €1 billion per supplier, according to German news agency dpa – an effort to impose some fiscal guardrails amid rapid militarization.
German drone startups Helsing and Stark Defence will be among the first significant beneficiaries to the newly greenlit program. Underscoring the low-cost nature of the drone technology, Helsing’s units reportedly carry a price tag of about €44,000 apiece before taxes, and the Stark systems run significantly higher, closer to €80,000 per drone.
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