Germany: Ministry of Defense stops procurement procedures for transport helicopters

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In the coming year, a new transport helicopter should be commissioned for the Bundeswehr. Now the Federal Ministry of Defense has stopped the award procedure for financial reasons. The ministry announced that the contract that was originally targeted for the coming year could not be achieved under the current framework conditions. As part of the award procedure started in 2019, it was recognized that it is unlikely that the project will be realized within the budgeted budget while meeting all requirements.

It said, the present offers had been rated as uneconomical. The schedule is now postponed so that a contract can no longer be reached in the coming year. However, the project remains a priority. By the end of the year, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to present a timetable on how to proceed.

Bundeswehr transport helicopters are massively outdated

The transport helicopters of the Bundeswehr are clearly outdated and only partially ready for use due to necessary repairs. But helicopters are particularly important for missions abroad such as in Afghanistan . In the Hindu Kush, the German Armed Forces have already rented helicopters from civil companies to transport soldiers.

Boeing applied for the order with the CH-47 "Chinook" and Sikorsky with the CH-53K. A German industrial team is involved in the Sikorsky offer, including Rheinmetall, MTU Aero Engines, Autoflug and Hydro Systems. The Boeing helicopter - easy to recognize by its characteristic banana shape with two rotors - has been in operation for a long time. Boeing has declared that it is working closely with the German aerospace industry and has named maintenance, training and technology solutions and its own locations in Germany .

Insiders said that the offers from the two providers Boeing and Sikorsky ended up being almost one hundred percent above the ministry's budget of around four billion euros, which is why the ripcord had to be pulled.

The failure of the award is a serious setback for the procurement area for the purchase of military equipment for the Bundeswehr, which has been reformed again and again in recent years. The transport helicopter of all things should become a model project for a more streamlined organization of such projects. Unlike in the past, the project should not always be more expensive than planned and ultimately be implemented with years of delay.