Defense leaders ordered the mine hunter Fulda and the support vessel Mosel to redeploy from Djibouti, a European and international naval hub at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, to the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday. The ships and crew will hold there and await further instructions about whether an international Hormuz mission will come to pass at all.

After the U.S-Israeli war against Iran began in late February, European nations pledged to assign naval vessels to a multinational mission for securing shipping in the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, over which Iran claims control. A precondition for such a deployment, governments here said, was that the conflict would ebb to such a degree that none of their ships would come under fire in a war many here consider pointless.

The prospect of a “permissive environment” is now deemed slim by Berlin, the Ministry of Defense announcement reads, as open hostilities have broken out again between Iran and the United States following a period of calm.

Aside from the geopolitical aspect of the redeployment, there is also a more mundane rationale, Navy officials acknowledge: The two vessels’ cooling systems, which rely on sea water, were not built for the high temperatures of the Gulf of Aden environs. The eastern Mediterranean will be a more suitable parking spot for the ships, constructed decades ago with operations in the North Atlantic and Germany-adjacent waters, the hope goes.

The redeployment of the Fulda and the Mosel has been “coordinated with international partners,” the ministry statement reads, as the vessels await an opportunity to tag along with a beefy air-defense escort to make the journey to the Mediterranean. On the way to Djibouti in June, the British air-defense destroyer Dragon provided protection through the Red Sea leg of the voyage.

“I can imagine Trump will criticize the move as a lack of staying power in the region,” said Sebastian Bruns, a fellow at the Royal Swedish Society for Naval Sciences (KÖMS), about the German naval redeployment plans.

But fellow European nations will understand it, as they all are puzzled by the dizzying pace of U.S. President’s Donald Trump’s proclamations variously trumpeting military strikes and prospects of some kind of peace deal, sometimes at the same time, he said.

Bruns criticized the German government for jumping on a bandwagon of “Symbolpolitik” in the first place — taking action only for the envisioned signal of aiding the Americans in some form even though the security context was unclear.

“For such highly specialized units as mine hunters, that role must feel like a waste for the crew,” he said.

The German Ministry of Defense said it will continue to keep the Fulda and the Mosel deployable for a future Strait of Hormuz operation, with officials eying “durable indications for a near-term start” of such a mission.

Pistorius’ comments amount to the first official response to a proposal by Macron at a July 17 bilateral ministerial summit to include Germany in the co-production of Europe’s only locally made long-range air defense system and alternative to the Patriot.

The German defense minister addressed the overture in a brief talk with reporters at a production plant operated by French-German-owned armored-vehicle maker KNDS in Kassel in central Germany.

Berlin is open to a role in SAMP/T “in principle,” Pistorius said, lauding the spirit of the French offer. At the same time, as a user of the U.S.-made Patriot ecosystem in the same distance and altitude defensive segment, he cautioned that eventually operating two different systems would be hard to conceive.

“On air defense, we’re arguing for European sovereignty, and we’re going to move forward on the famous SAMP/T new-generation system, with also a clear willingness from France to co-produce with Germany and our Italian partners in the new-generation SAMP/T,” Macron said at a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday.

The response by Pistorius suggests longer-term cooperation on technology development for the SAMP/T system is also on the table — he cited “10 years or more” — compared with a more limited production offer. The benefits of such a scenario, in turn, would be interesting for Germany, Pistorius said.

“We should therefore take this offer seriously” and study all the relevant details, he told reporters.

An acute shortage of Patriot interceptors, partly due to the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, have European Patriot customers on edge about spares and new production. The U.S. government has signaled that it wants to fulfill hardware requirements for American forces first, relegating some international production slots to the back of the line.

The situation has amplified voices in Europe calling for more sovereign capabilities unconnected to the political and military fortunes of the United States.

Pan-European missile maker MBDA has said it plans to double production this year of the Aster air-defense interceptor used in the SAMP/T system. The firm in October 2024 conducted the first test firing of an updated Aster 30 Block 1 New Technology interceptor designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles.

Italy took delivery of its first SAMP/T NG in January, equipped with a Leonardo radar with an air-surveillance instrument range of at least 300 kilometers, while France received its first upgraded system in February, equipped with a Thales Ground Fire 300 radar that has a claimed range of up to 400 kilometers.

Ukraine said on July 14 it was planning to order four SAMP/T NG systems, with France committing to delivering them as soon as possible, with progressive deployment of modules as they become available starting in 2027. One Thales GF300 radar will be deployed in Ukraine by the end of 2026 as the first component of the SAMP/T NG.

While the new air-defense systems are being produced, France agreed to send Ukraine two SAMP/T systems what will be returned upon delivery of the new-generation systems, according to Ukraine, which said it would also receive a Leonardo Kronos radar and five Thales Ground Master 400 radars.

France and Italy decided to accelerate delivery of agreed Aster 30 missiles by October this year “to address the operational urgency,” while the countries also authorized licensed production of the Aster 30 missile in Ukraine before the end of 2026, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.

Ruitenberg reported from Paris.

Company officials presented the idea at the Eurosatory defense exhibition outside of Paris on June 15, pulling the cover off a mockup model in a mini ceremony that served as an ode to the combat punch of massed kamikaze drones, complete with glasses of cold beer and water on a warm Paris day.

One container can hold 18 of the company’s FV-014 munitions, meant to plop out of the container by way of rocket-assisted start. Following a post-launch tumbling phase, the munition is designed to spread its stabilizer fins and rush toward coordinates fed to its by the sensors of what Rheinmetall calls a “reconnaissance and strike” network.

Potential applications include driving the loaded containers to the front line on the back of trucks, where they would discharge their cargo to hit targets with their 4 kilogram warhead up to 100 kilometers away.

The loitering munitions have a maximum flight time of 70 minutes, meaning they can circle a general target area for a while until ground commanders call for a strike.

Another application could be arranging a number of the containers along a border, perhaps camouflaged, to spring into action when an enemy approaches, Timo Hass, CEO of Rheinmetall’s Digital Systems division, told reporters.

Haas said Rheinmetall will disclose the architecture of the drone launch interfaces inside the container — the physical slots and the electronic connectors — so that other companies could in theory design alternative, better munitions.

Whether it will come to that remains to be seen, as Rheinmetall only recently celebrated the award of a contract by the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, for its brand new FV-014 loitering munition type.

German lawmakers in February authorized roughly $320 million each in funding for domestic loitering munitions makers Stark Defence, offering the Virtus, and Helsing, offering the HX-2.

They added Rheinmetall with the FV-014 as a later-comer a few weeks thereafter, leading to an April contract with the Düsseldorf-based defense company to the tune of roughly €300 million, or $348 million.

All three companies stand to make billions more in business if the Bundeswehr ends up finding their loitering munitions useful.

Separate statements to that effect published Thursday by the lead companies of both nations, Airbus and Indra, come as news broke this week that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had decided to drop the sixth-generation fighter jet segment of FCAS.

That warplane was meant to be a centerpiece of the effort, with accompanying drones, sensors and communications equipment envisioned to act in concert as a first-of-its-kind uber-weapon in the skies.

Years of squabbling between German industry lead Airbus and French lead Dassault Aviation over leadership and intellectual property ultimately led to the program’s demise, essentially overruling political goodwill among the leadership of both countries.

On the German side, a group dubbed “Team Gen 6” now includes Airbus Defence and Space, Autoflug, Diehl Defence, Hensoldt, Liebherr, MBDA Deutschland, MTU Aero Engines and Rohde & Schwarz.

In a joint statement circulated at the ILA Berlin Airshow on Thursday, the companies argue the fielding of a sixth-generation fighter plane should remain Berlin’s goal.

“An effective new setup is now indispensable for achieving our common objective: a superior European air combat system for our collective security,” the firms wrote in the statement.

With existing FCAS contracts ending this year, the companies want the government to keep spending money on such a warplane, warning that a lapse in funding would lead to an “irreversible” loss in expertise.

In Spain, the corresponding industry grouping encompasses Indra, the Spanish arm of Airbus Defence and Space, Grupo Oesia, GMV, ITP and Sener.

Notably, the companies emphasize a desire to work as part of a multinational team, leaving the door open to piggybacking on an existing sixth-generation fighter push like the British-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme, or inviting aerospace companies like Sweden’s Saab into the mix.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius this week outlined several options for Germany to acquire next-gen fighters after the end of the FCAS fighter jet development.

The first path involves buying a batch of F-35 jets from the United States. Another option would have Germany join GCAP. A third scenario envisions an Airbus-led project in conjunction with other companies, a scenario closest to what German companies were lobbying for in the joint proclamation on Thursday.

As the dust was still settling in Berlin from Monday’s bombshell news, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius outlined three options on Tuesday, plus a mysterious fourth path that he alluded to but left unexplained.

One option consists of buying additional stealthy F-35 jets from the United States on top of the 35 already ordered, he said on the sidelines of a meeting with his Czech counterpart, Jaromír Zůna, in Berlin.

German news outlet Der Spiegel reported last October that plans were already in the works to purchase 15 such warplanes from the U.S., to the tune of almost $3 billion.

Pistorius confirmed those plans are now on the table, saying they could be a “bridge” solution “or whatever” on the way to a next-generation weapon for Germany.

The second option entails Berlin getting involved in an existing international fighter program with sixth-generation features, Pistorius said.

Aside from a U.S. push to that end, the most obvious candidate for this path would be a British-Italian-Japanese effort, dubbed Global Combat Air Programme.

Finally, Germany could start its own program, Pistorius said, “under German leadership with Airbus and other partners.”

He said German defense leaders had been talking with Airbus about feasible options “for months,” because the end of the FCAS program had been expected.

Pistorius largely blamed unresolvable differences with French industry champion Dassault over intellectual property as well as diverging military requirements for the program’s demise.

In the end, government leaders from France and Germany were unable to compel the companies involved to cooperate, he said, as much as Paris and Berlin had wanted to.

“Knowing what we know today, we wouldn’t set up a program in this way again,” Pistorius said.

The plant in Born, Netherlands, is run in conjunction with local company VDL Defentec, which specializes in assembling armored vehicles and their electric propulsion.

The facility has already produced its first THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, for the Dutch government, part of a run of more than 100 such robots the Netherlands has pledged to send Ukrainian forces, Milrem said in a statement.

The tracked THeMIS vehicles are configurable for a plethora of battlefield applications, according to the manufacturer’s website. There are weapon-mounted versions for assault missions, sensor-laden variants for spying on enemy movements, and cargo-capable robots for carrying gear or extracting wounded personnel.

Ukrainian forces have used the UGVs since 2022, where soldiers found them to be reliable and effective in combat conditions, according to Milrem.

“The opening of this production line and the handover of the first THeMIS vehicles manufactured in the Netherlands mark an important milestone in our cooperation with the Dutch government and VDL Defentec,” said Milrem Robotics CEO Kuldar Väärsi.

“It demonstrates that Europe’s defense industry is capable of rapidly increasing production capacity and delivering meaningful capabilities to Ukraine,” he added.

The new assembly line is designed for flexibility and rapid scaling, the company notes, meaning it can spit out more robots faster when required.

Unmanned systems in the air and on land have become a defining feature in Ukraine’s defense against Russian forces. Both sides have used aerial drones and UGVs to such a degree that human soldiers cannot move on the front line without being immediately detected and targeted.

The envisioned center would service the Asian nation’s own TKMS boats of the 218SG class, as well as submarines built by the German shipbuilder for allied nations navigating in the area, TKMS said in a statement.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding to that end coincided with a visit to Singapore by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who praised the tiny nation as Berlin’s decades-long ally in the Asia-Pacific region.

Pistorius’ remarks about the companies’ submarine plans lent an air of grand strategy to the pact, as he described the idea of a submarine “hub” that could serve global nations with an interest protecting maritime trade routes — and who happen to have bought submarines from TKMS.

Singapore has ordered six submarines of the 218SG type from the German shipyard, known as the Invincible class, three of which are already delivered.

The city state also buys land weapons from Germany, having amassed what Pistorius called a “big” fleet of Leopard 2 tanks. Various reports peg the number of tanks at 170 tanks or more.

Pistorius said he was delighted to hear Singapore is also considering buying Boeing P-8 maritime-surveillance aircraft, which would create another element of armament commonality with Germany. Berlin received its first P-8 out of an envisioned fleet of eight earlier this year, he added, noting that aircraft already saw service in the Indo-Pacific area.

Editor’s note: An attribution in this article was corrected to reflect TKMS as the sole author of a statement about servicing TKMS submarines, not a joint declaration by both companies.

Defense officials in Berlin portrayed a preliminary contract with the German shipbuilder, approved by lawmakers on Wednesday, as part of “bridge solution” that would ensure the sea service gets urgently needed anti-submarine ships beginning in late 2029, in time to meet NATO commitments.

The plan comes amid mounting questions about a batch of six F126 frigates — previously called MKS-180 — that Germany initially ordered from Dutch shipbuilder Damen in 2020 for a price tag potentially approaching $10 billion.

At the time, the contract award sparked a debate in Germany’s naval-industry circles, with critics arguing the capability was too important to outsource even to a company in the neighboring Netherlands, a close ally.

Damen said it would build the ships in Germany, aiming to have 70% of the contract value go through German vendors.

Construction of the first unit in the class of 10,550-ton frigates started in December 2023, with first steel cutting at the Peene shipyard in Wolgast, Germany, followed by a keel-laying ceremony attended by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in June 2024.

According to the German defense ministry, the plan to order four MEKO A-200 DEU ships does not mean the F126 program is altogether sunk.

Officials have been negotiating with NVL, or Naval Vessels Lürssen, as a new main contractor for the program, according to an agency statement.

The firm, newly acquired by defense giant Rheinmetall, describes itself on its website as an “independent, privately owned group of renowned Northern German shipyards and related companies.”

Damen has signaled it would go along with a German lead, though the Dutch company wants to remain “an essential partner,” it said in its annual earnings statement in October 2025.

Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris contributed to this article.

“With Spain, France and Holland, we will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the next few days,” Guido Crosetto told Italy’s parliament in a statement.

An Italian navy vessel able to reach Cyprus quickly would be the Spartaco Schergat, a FREMM frigate which is off the coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean and is due to conclude its involvement in the NATO Dynamic Manta exercise on Friday. It will however need to return to base in Sicily for refueling before a mission to Cyprus.

One defense official, who declined to be named, said a better option would however be one of Italy’s larger Horizon-class destroyers, given their longer range radar. The challenge is their location: The Andrea Doria is off the coast of Norway while the Caio Duilio is undergoing regular maintenance at La Spezia in Italy.

Nations sending vessels to Cyprus would not necessarily need to operate under one national command but could cooperate, the official said.

Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, to discuss security in the Gulf and Cyprus, her office said.

Macron announced Tuesday that he ordered the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group, deployed to northern Europe for exercises, to the Mediterranean.

The move comes as the war in Iran risks spilling over to Europe’s southeastern edge. For example, RAF Akrotiri, a British military base in southern Cyprus that has previously served as as a hub for U.S. and U.K. Middle East aerial operations, was targeted by Iranian strike drones this week.

Close Cyprus ally Greece has already sent two frigates to the island.

The French naval strike group is scheduled to arrive in the Mediterranean late this week or early next week, French Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin told RTL radio on Thursday.

The Spanish frigate Cristóbal Colón has already joined the Charles the Gaulle formation on its way to Cyprus, Spanish defense officials said Thursday.

“The ‘Cristóbal Colón’ is our most technologically advanced frigate. Its mission in the Mediterranean will be to offer protection and air defense, thus complementing the capabilities of our Patriot battery deployed in Turkey,” reads a Spanish ministry of defense statement. “It will also be on standby to support any evacuation of civilian personnel who may be affected by the conflict.”

Meanwhile, the British Type 45 destroyer Dragon, announced by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer as the chosen ship to help secure the country’s Cyprus base, was still being readied for the snap deployment on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Fresh out of maintenance, the ongoing loading of ammunition means the Dragon will likely be stuck in Portsmouth until next week, according to the report.

The Dutch frigate Evertsen is also part of the group of ships heading to the Mediterranean, but defense officials in the Netherlands have yet to decide what the vessel will be tasked to do once there.

German defense officials appear to be in no rush to consider sending ships supporting a naval Cyprus protection mission in response to the Iran war fallout, though chancellor Merz has said Berlin would assist “in preventative measures.”

Regional assistance and NATO defense plans for the region currently add up to a sufficient degree of preparedness, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Meloni said on Thursday that Italy would be sending air defense systems to protect Gulf states. “Italy, like the U.K., France and Germany, aim to send help to the Gulf states, and we clearly talking about air defense,” she said.

Speculation is mounting in Italy that Rome will send a Samp-T air defense system.

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

Lawmakers on the parliamentary budget committee on Feb. 25 approved contracts worth €268 million ($316 million) each for startups Stark Defence and Helsing to supply the Virtus and HX-2 loitering munitions, respectively. Contractual options could add €1 billion to each of the deals, provided the systems prove technologically mature and lawmakers agree to additional purchases.

A third offer by defense giant Rheinmetall is expected for budget committee consideration within weeks and will receive the same spending plan, according to Andreas Schwarz, budget committee member and point man for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in defense budget matters.

“We want to treat everybody equally,” Schwarz told Defense News.

Rheinmetall announced last week the successful demonstration of its FV-014 loitering munition to a “potential NATO customer” at a range in Germany.

Having three manufacturers on tap means defense leaders and lawmakers are in a position to guide the future flow of money to the most capable offerings, Schwarz said.

Loitering munitions are designed to fly to a general target area, stay airborne above it and automatically propose strike targets to human operators a safe distance away. The target selection process happens by way of on-board sensor data collection and analysis, supported by artificial intelligence.

When cleared for attack, the drones lock on to a target and try to ram their warhead into it.

The deadly technology is so effective in the war in Ukraine that large stretches of the front line are no-go areas for human soldiers.

The German parliament agreeing to spend large sums on these types of weapon is part of a remarkable turnaround for the European country’s military posture since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. Previously, lawmakers, including in the SPD, were wary of allowing the military to install weapons of any kind on drones.

“We have to adapt to the realities that exist in the world,” Schwarz told Defense News.

As a first step, the three German manufacturers’ weapons are destined to equip Germany’s armored brigade in Lithuania in 2027.

Speed in fielding the new weapons is of the essence for German military leaders. Having soldier testing and training happening in parallel rather than sequentially is meant to save time, according to a defense ministry statement.

Such an approach typically increases risk in defense acquisitions, especially when fielding novel technology.

That’s why lawmakers attached reporting requirements to the approved spending plan, designed to keep a close watch on the progress. Cancellation clauses also enable the government to walk away from offerings if manufacturers fail qualification tests.

Meanwhile, manufacturer Stark Defence has managed to assuage lawmakers’ concerns about the involvement of libertarian U.S. investor Peter Thiel in the company.

Thiel’s shares in Stark amount to a one-digit percentage, which means he has no access or insight into the startup’s operative business, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters on Wednesday.

Pistorius and Schwarz said they were content with have a written commitment to that effect from the company.

Ahead of the budget committee vote, critics said Thiel’s touch could make the Stark deal iffy.

“The fact is that Peter Thiel openly rejects our democracy. We do not know how large his influence at Stark is. And even worse: The federal government cannot explain it,” Greens lawmaker Jeanne Dillschneider was quoted as saying in a Politico report on Tuesday.