Sensing a feeding frenzy, German arms makers jockey for position – By Sebastian Sprenger (Defense News) / March 11, 2022
WASHINGTON — German companies are jockeying for position as the government tees up massive investments meant to drastically improve the state of the armed forces.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Feb. 27 proposal to ramp up defense expenditures by tens of billions of euros, spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine, has defense officials in Berlin scrambling to identify spending opportunities that promise fast results, according to several company officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
So hasty is the process that a key official in the Defence Ministry’s acquisition office, Vice Adm. Carsten Stawitzki, signaled to company executives that certain acquisition rules could be outright circumvented in service of quick deliveries. Companies also were put on notice that they should drop outstanding procurement disputes on the docket with the ministry in order to partake in upcoming work.
“It’s all completely ad hoc at the moment,” said an industry official.
