Germany, US to expand shared production of Patriot interceptors, strike missiles

COLOGNE, Germany — The defense leaders of Germany and the United States have signed an agreement positioning Germany as an additional production hub where workers can make scarce munitions for American weapons if stateside U.S. firms are overwhelmed by demand.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the pact on Tuesday during a visit by Pistorius to the Pentagon. It comes as German officials, in particular, are looking to secure practical touchpoints in the trans-Atlantic defense relationship, dinged by U.S. President Trump’s on-again, off-again disdain for NATO and Europe.

Hegseth portrayed the agreement as combining defense-acquisition reform initiatives in both nations.

“When we align the two, you expand opportunities for joint development, production, licensed manufacturing and expanded maintenance and sustainment capacities — exactly what allied countries should be doing,” he said .

Germany’s arm of pan-European missile maker MBDA is already making Patriot air-defense interceptors of the older PAC-2 generation. Production of the latest PAC-3 MSE interceptor is set to begin at the company’s plant in Schrobenhausen later this year, Pistorius told reporters.

In addition, officials from both countries will consider which components of the Tomahawk cruise missile Germany could supply, he told reporters.

Berlin wants to buy the missiles, along with Typhon launchers , as part of Germany’s emerging “deep precision strike” complex. While there is agreement on a political level on selling the weapons, manufacturing them will take longer than defense leaders in Berlin want to wait .

Patriot interceptors and Tomahawk cruise missiles have become prime examples of scarce weaponry in recent years.

European nations have funneled much of their Patriot inventories to Ukraine to help Kyiv defend against barrages of Russian missiles and attack drones, and they are now scrambling to rebuild their own arsenals.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces have reportedly drawn down the Pentagon’s Tomahawk stock considerably during the war against Iran. That has made the cruise missiles, prized for their precision at a range of 1,000 miles, hard to obtain for European countries, like Germany, looking to build a long-range strike capability from scratch.

Berlin is keeping its options open for more readily available medium- and long-range weapons while developing an upgraded version of its own German-Swedish Taurus missile. For example, Germany is part of a European group of nations looking for a homegrown alternative, known as ELSA.

In addition, officials are eyeing the Anthem cruise missile by U.S.-based firm Covenant , as well as a cooperation with Ukraine, Pistorius said in Washington.

Germany’s new defense-industry overture with the U.S. may ruffle some feathers among European autonomy purists, especially in France.

Paris has already seen Berlin walk away from joint weapons development programs in recent years in favor of quicker purchases from the U.S. Those include P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft made by Boeing and F-35 fighter jets by Lockheed Martin.

The acquisitions were perceived by some French officials as sucking the air out of bilateral efforts to develop next-generation aircraft for each of the two mission types.

France has repeatedly criticized the use of European money to produce U.S. weapons under license, with then-Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu, the current prime minister, saying in February 2025 that doing so would be a “historic mistake.”

The French government has argued that EU funds should build up European defense-industrial capacity, rather than subsidizing systems whose design authority remains outside of Europe, citing German production of interceptors for the Patriot air-defense system rather than investing in the French-Italian SAMP/T.

During their public remarks at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Hegseth focused on the mechanics of the new defense-cooperation agreement, as Pistorius painted a geopolitical context for the pact.

“We need to realize once more … that we are currently experiencing what might be the greatest threat to the alliance, the West, and our way of life since the height of the Cold War,” Pistorius said. “Russia has been waging a brutal war against Ukraine for almost five years now. Russia is modernizing its nuclear arsenal, increasing its presence in the Arctic and militarizing space.”

“Russia will remain the biggest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in the foreseeable future,” he added.

The German defense minister was scheduled to meet with U.S. lawmakers and local defense company executives after meeting Hegseth in Washington, per the German Ministry of Defense.

His trip will be capped on Friday by a handover ceremony of the first German F-35 coming off the production line at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Fort Worth, Texas. Germany has ordered 35 of the planes so far, but defense officials in Berlin are eyeing more.

Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris and Linus Höller in Vienna contributed to this report.

Sebastian Sprenger is associate editor for Europe at Defense News, reporting on the state of the defense market in the region, and on U.S.-Europe cooperation and multi-national investments in defense and global security. Previously he served as managing editor for Defense News. He is based in Cologne, Germany.

德国科隆——德国和美国的国防领导人签署了一项协议，将德国定位为额外的生产中心，如果美国本土公司不堪重负，德国工人可以在德国生产美国武器所需的稀缺弹药。

德国国防部长鲍里斯·皮斯托里乌斯和美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯周二在皮斯托里乌斯访问五角大楼期间宣布了这项协议。此前，美国总统特朗普对北约和欧洲的态度时而冷淡，令跨大西洋防务关系受到冲击，德国官员尤其希望借此巩固双方在跨大西洋防务关系中的实际联系。

赫格塞斯将该协议描述为两国国防采购改革举措的结合。

他说：“当我们把这两者结合起来时，就能扩大联合开发、生产、许可制造以及扩大维护和保障能力的机会——这正是盟国应该做的。”

皮斯托瑞斯告诉记者，泛欧导弹制造商MBDA的德国分公司已经在生产老款PAC-2“爱国者”防空拦截导弹。该公司位于施罗本豪森的工厂将于今年晚些时候开始生产最新的PAC-3 MSE拦截导弹。

他还告诉记者，两国官员还将考虑德国可以提供战斧巡航导弹的哪些部件。

柏林希望购买这些导弹以及“台风”导弹发射装置，作为德国正在构建的“深度精确打击”体系的一部分。尽管在政治层面已就武器销售达成一致，但制造这些武器所需的时间将超出柏林国防领导人的预期。

近年来，爱国者拦截导弹和战斧巡航导弹已成为稀缺武器的典型例子。

欧洲各国已将大部分爱国者导弹库存输送给乌克兰，以帮助基辅抵御俄罗斯导弹和攻击无人机的猛烈攻击，现在他们正争先恐后地重建自己的武器库。

与此同时，据报道，在对伊朗的战争期间，美军大幅削减了五角大楼的“战斧”巡航导弹库存。这使得这种射程达1000英里、精度极高的巡航导弹，对于像德国这样希望从零开始构建远程打击能力的欧洲国家来说，变得难以获得。

柏林在研发德瑞联合研制的“金牛座”导弹升级版的同时，也在为更容易获得的远程和中程武器保持开放态度。例如，德国是欧洲国家联盟“欧洲激光导弹系统联盟”（ELSA）的成员之一，该联盟致力于寻求自主研发的替代导弹方案。

皮斯托里乌斯在华盛顿表示，此外，官员们正在关注美国公司 Covenant 的 Anthem 巡航导弹，以及与乌克兰的合作。

德国向美国抛出的新国防工业橄榄枝可能会激怒一些欧洲的自治纯粹主义者，尤其是在法国。

近年来，巴黎已经目睹柏林放弃联合武器研发项目，转而更快地从美国购买武器。这些武器包括波音公司生产的 P-8 海上巡逻机和洛克希德·马丁公司生产的 F-35 战斗机。

一些法国官员认为，这些采购削弱了两国为这两种任务类型开发下一代飞机的双边努力。

法国曾多次批评使用欧洲资金根据许可证生产美国武器的做法，时任武装部队部长、现任总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努在 2025 年 2 月表示，这样做将是一个“历史性的错误”。

法国政府认为，欧盟资金应该用于发展欧洲国防工业能力，而不是补贴那些设计权仍然在欧洲之外的系统，例如德国为“爱国者”防空系统生产拦截弹，而不是投资法国-意大利的SAMP/T系统。

周二在五角大楼举行的公开讲话中，赫格塞斯重点介绍了新的防务合作协议的机制，而皮斯托里乌斯则描绘了该协议的地缘政治背景。

皮斯托瑞斯说：“我们必须再次意识到……我们目前正面临着自冷战高峰以来对联盟、西方以及我们生活方式的最大威胁。俄罗斯对乌克兰发动残酷战争已经近五年了。俄罗斯正在对其核武库进行现代化改造，加强在北极地区的存在，并推进太空军事化。”

“在可预见的未来，俄罗斯仍将是欧洲-大西洋安全的最大威胁，”他补充道。

据德国国防部消息，德国国防部长在华盛顿会见赫格塞斯后，计划与美国国会议员和当地国防公司高管会面。

他的访问将于周五达到高潮，届时他将在位于德克萨斯州沃斯堡的洛克希德·马丁公司工厂出席首架德国下线的F-35战斗机的交付仪式。德国迄今已订购了35架该型战机，但柏林的国防官员正在考虑增购。

巴黎的 Rudy Ruitenberg 和维也纳的 Linus Höller 对本报道亦有贡献。

塞巴斯蒂安·斯普伦格是《防务新闻》欧洲版副主编，负责报道该地区的防务市场状况，以及美欧在防务和全球安全领域的合作和多国投资。此前，他曾担任《防务新闻》执行主编。他现居德国科隆。