Bundeswehr’s 45th Panzer Brigade to get loitering munitions

The German Parliament’s Budget Committee has allocated €150 million for the swift procurement of strike drones for the 45th Panzer Brigade, to be stationed in Lithuania. The allocation, which amends the federal government’s 2025 draft budget, is intended to ensure the brigade’s readiness by 2027.

“The first Struck Law” states: “No law comes out of parliament as it was brought in.” It is therefore not surprising that there are noticeable differences between the federal government’s draft for the 2025 Federal Budget Act and the recently published resolution of the Budget Committee. A change in Title 554 13 “Procurement of aircraft, missiles, aircraft rescue, safety and other aeronautical equipment” within the defence expenditure section stands out. It concerns the procurement of loitering munitions for the 45th Panzer Brigade stationed in Lithuania.

“The 45th Panzer Brigade stationed in Lithuania should be fully operational by 2027. For this major formation, an initial capability of an AI-optimised reconnaissance and effects network for national and alliance defence is to be procured, to ensure sustained reconnaissance and effects superiority in a 100×100 km operational area,” the Budget Committee’s resolution states.

“To achieve the full operational readiness of the brigade in 2027, the contract must be concluded in 2025 so that delivery can begin in 2026 along with the necessary training. A budget of up to €150 million is to be provided for this. Optionally, additional reconnaissance, command, and effects drones can be flexibly commissioned in the following years,” the budget officials continued.

The text does not specify what a “reconnaissance and effects network for national and alliance defence” should look like, which systems it should be made of, or exactly how many of which drones are to be procured. Nevertheless, some conclusions can be drawn from the publicly available text.

Political and Technical Context

The fact that this text was explicitly included in the Budget Committee’s resolution indicates a political consensus or compromise within the government factions that the Bundeswehr urgently needs AI-optimised strike drone capabilities to fulfil its mission. However, the mention of national and alliance defence suggests that the political compromise is currently only related to fulfilling this core task of the Bundeswehr. The use of these capabilities in stabilisation missions outside the alliance territory is likely to remain a point of contention for parts of the SPD. It will be interesting to see how this issue is viewed in the context of national crisis prevention, such as rescuing German hostages or military evacuation operations. Missions of this kind have a high ad-hoc character that rules out lengthy discussions. Depending on the situation, they are even approved by parliament only after the mission has been completed. It is probably still unclear whether strike drone capabilities procured by the Bundeswehr may be used in such missions. At least, nothing has been publicly communicated about this.

All in all, it is certainly no coincidence that both timeframes and the terms “AI-optimised” and “national and alliance defence” appear in the text. Observers assume that this can be understood as a clear signal from the Bundestag that the relevance of this technology for the operational readiness of the armed forces is also politically recognised.

Technical Conclusions

The text from the budget officials also contains some information for a systemic-technical evaluation. For example, it is clear that the systems to be procured are to be AI-optimised, but not autonomous. The reference to national and alliance defence (LV/BV) can also be used to evaluate the required system performance.

Performance

It can be assumed that a brigade operating in a national and alliance defence role on NATO’s eastern flank must operate in an environment where large-scale disruptions of the electromagnetic spectrum are to be expected. The systems must, therefore, be equipped with hardened communication and navigation systems to ensure operation in such an environment.

Furthermore, in such a scenario, the appearance of enemy armoured formations would be expected, so the effects drones used must have appropriate warheads to be able to combat well-protected main battle tanks. The specified possible operational area of 100 x 100 km can also be taken as a clear indication of an operational range of around 100 km for the reconnaissance and effects network.

The question remains, however, whether the armed forces should procure only individual components – for example, effects drones – as an initial capability, or an entire reconnaissance and effects network consisting of different, mutually optimised components.

The budgeted funds of €150 million euros and the reference to an initial capability, however, indicate that the initial focus of the procurement could be on the effects component, i.e., depending on the preferred name, effects drones, loitering munition, or strike drones. The unit prices of such drones, approved for use by the Bundeswehr with a range of 100 km, are likely to be in the range of modern anti-tank guided missiles, which cost between €50,000 and €150,000. Depending on the price, this would make around 1,000 to 3,000 strike drones affordable.

Reconnaissance

This leaves little scope for the simultaneous procurement of a mutually optimised command and communication infrastructure and sustainable reconnaissance components.

In the initial capability, these components will likely have to be provided by systems already in service. In the area of reconnaissance, the HUSAR reconnaissance system (Highly Efficient Unmanned System for Imaging Reconnaissance of Medium Range) or the “remotely controlled reconnaissance system, air-supported, short-range” (FALKE) are candidates. Both systems were procured for the Army reconnaissance force and at least theoretically offer the required operational range of 100 km. Whether this range is also available in practice is likely known only to the Bundeswehr and the manufacturers, as only they have knowledge of the communication and navigation elements currently installed in the systems. The manufacturer of the HUSAR—also known as LUNA NG/B in the industry—is Rheinmetall. The FALKE, on the other hand, is a version of the Vector drone by Quantum Systems.

Candidate loitering munitions

Since the force does not yet have any inventory of strike drones, it can be assumed that these are the focus of the procurement “ordered” by the Budget Committee for 2025. However, the Budget Committee’s passage does not indicate whether one or more different loitering munition systems are to be purchased as part of the initial capability for the 45th Panzer Brigade.

In early April, the Bundeswehr procured strike drones from two German manufacturers for testing and qualification purposes, which are to be evaluated by the end of 2025. As Hartpunkt reported, citing well-informed sources, these systems are the HX-2 from Helsing and the OWE-V/Virtus from STARK. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told Hartpunkt on September 8 in response to an inquiry that no further contract for the procurement of loitering munitions had been awarded since then.

However, well-informed circles have told Hartpunkt that the Bundeswehr has also become aware of a third German provider of strike drones with an operational range of around 100 km as part of a market survey and that this provider could be considered for further contracts. This provider is understood to be Rheinmetall. Appropriately, the Düsseldorf-based defence company recently presented its FV-014 strike drone , which is in the final phase of development, to the public for the first time at the DSEI 2025 defence exhibition in London. The system is said to be able to remain in the air for 60 minutes and accurately combat targets at a distance of 100 km even in a contested electronic environment.

Overall assessment

As written at the beginning, the inclusion of the text in the Budget Committee’s resolution is in itself a positive signal for the future use of strike drones in the Bundeswehr. By initiating the procurement of this initial capability, the Bundeswehr can, through the 45th Panzer Brigade, also gain its first experience in building and using a reconnaissance-strike network and identify further needs for the scaled introduction of this capability. Nevertheless, a way must be found sooner or later to significantly accelerate the pace of procurement and introduction of new technologies into the force.

This article written by Waldemar Geiger, was initially published on hartpunkt.de on September 23, 2025. It was translated and published on Calibredefence.co.uk the same day. Credit for the lead image is hartpunkt, and it shows a collage of the potential strike drones.