Great appearance at the signing of the contract for the procurement of 940 portable Stinger anti-aircraft missiles in the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process. During the NATO summit in Washington on July 9, the defense ministers of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands met for the contract signing ceremony chaired by NATO Deputy Secretary Mircea Geoană, at which the managing director of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), Representatives of the US government and the Stinger manufacturer RTX have signed the corresponding agreements, as the NSPA has reported.
In the FMS process, the NSPA applied for the procurement of 940 FIM-92K Stinger Block I missiles for almost 700 million US dollars (the equivalent of 643 million euros), which the US government approved. The procurement was prepared by the Stinger support partnership set up at the NSPA, in which eight NATO partners and Switzerland exchange information on logistical and operational issues.
The contract includes battery coolant units (BCUs), metal containers, production and delivery of the missiles, technical and engineering support, and other related elements of logistics and program support, according to NSPA.
This multinational, multi-year contract will provide the three nations with significant savings compared to individual procurements at the national level and will support the NATO Defense Production Action Plan (DPAP), which sets out a number of specific measures and projects to enable the Alliance to cooperate with the defense industry. At the heart of this plan, the NSPA says it plays a central role in consolidating national requirements into multi-year, multinational procurement frameworks.
“As NATO's lead procurement, support and sustainment organization, NSPA provides Allies and Partner States with effective multinational solutions based on proven legal frameworks,” said Stacy A. Cummings, NSPA Director General. Consolidating requirements results in economies of scale that significantly reduce costs and logistical effort, and provides additional operational benefits such as commonalities beyond interoperability, Cummings continued.
“Stinger is the world's most effective man-portable air defense missile in service today, providing combat-tested protection to soldiers in the face of growing threats,” said Christopher T. Calio, president and chief executive officer of RTX.
On June 26, the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag released 395 million euros for the procurement of the “Man Portable Air Defense Systems” (MANPADS) Stinger (ESuTreported). According to the list of support deliveries to Ukraine, the Bundeswehr has handed over 500 Stingers, which can now be procured. Consequently, individual plan 60 is intended as a source of financing. The possible delivery date was 2028/2029. Apparently the demand is high and the production capacity at RTX is too low.
Editorial staff / gwh
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