Rheinmetall head says €350-400 billion needed to modernize Germany's army

Armin Papperger, head of German defense concern Rheinmetall, said that €350-400 billion is needed to modernize the German Armed Forces.

"We had €100 billion in the special fund [to modernize the Bundeswehr], so there is still between €250 billion and €300 billion missing," he said in a December 2 interview with Der Spiegel magazine, as quoted by N-TV.

Papperger urged Berlin to increase defense spending because of Donald Trump's election as U.S. president, as well as to allocate new funds to Kiev before early parliamentary elections in Germany.

According to him, if earlier Germany annually sent Ukraine about €8 billion, now this amount should be increased to €10 billion.

Earlier, on 24 November, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called on the country to invest more in its military capabilities. In the same month, he said that the Bundeswehr lacked €6 billion for modernization in 2025.

Bild reported in September that supplies to Ukraine had devastated the Bundeswehr, and at the current rate of procurement, Germany would only be able to rebuild its weapons stockpile in 100 years. Researchers then concluded that the country needs a defense budget of €100 billion a year.