Business Insider are reporting that Germany is on the point of ordering 82 H145M helicopters from Airbus, 24 of them armed with anti-tank missiles.  This follows the rejection of further upgrades to their Tiger gunship fleet.

The Germany military currently have a fleet of 51 Tigers, but only a fraction of those are operational at any given time.  Business Insider also cite internal documents from the Department of Defence that show that the Tiger fleet will have inevitable “temporary capability limitations” from 2025, a gradual fleet reduction from 2027, and they expect to scrap five or six Tigers every year from 2032 onwards.

The projected cost of the project is quoted as €3.05 billion, but it is unclear what that covers – certainly it would be the acquisition cost of the new helicopters, but it is unknown whether maintenance and pilot training is included or any costs associated with the gradual wind-down of the Tiger fleet.