BERLIN — The German army intends to start out the procurement course of for a novel “Anti Torpedo Torpedo” in 2026, based on a finances planning doc revealed by Politico Europe on Tuesday.
Protection officers plan to allocate €70 million ($83 million) for the system, marketed by ThyssenKrupp Marine Techniques as a kinetic interceptor to guard naval vessels towards incoming torpedoes, based on the doc.
Officers envision consideration of the procurement by the parliamentary finances committee in the course of the panel’s Could 6, 2026, session, with a written proposal as a result of lawmakers two weeks prior.
In an e-mail to Protection Information, a spokesman for the German protection ministry mentioned he couldn’t touch upon the doc or this system planning particularly.
Atlas Elektronik, a subsidiary of TKMS, has for years marketed its SeaSpider anti-torpedo torpedo because the world’s first market-ready kinetic interceptor, arguing it’s the one solution to reliably eradicate torpedoes with more and more refined seekers.
Conventional torpedo protection has relied on tricking torpedo sensors into lacking their goal.
Improvement of the SeaSpider know-how started as a joint mission between Atlas and the Dutch TNO analysis group virtually 20 years in the past. The work continues now with funding from the European Union’s PESCO – Everlasting Structured Cooperation – framework, a mechanism meant to deepen cross-border protection ties in Europe.
The sunshine torpedo is designed to independently lock onto and kill incoming torpedoes of any type, serving as a short-distance, hard-kill interceptor. It has onboard sensors and homing talents, and is uniquely pushed by solid-fuel rocket propellant.
No nation has formally positioned an order for the SeaSpider but, though earlier this 12 months, the Netherlands introduced its intention to purchase the weapon. The German and Dutch navies, whose instructions are built-in, have been deeply concerned within the improvement and testing of the system.
The Dutch navy’s anti-submarine warfare frigate will reportedly be the primary to obtain the brand new weapon within the Netherlands. On the German aspect, firm officers have mentioned their meant first person would be the new F127 frigate, whose deliberate progress by way of the German protection procurement motions roughly strains up.
The F127 is a brand new ship class for the German navy, serving as an air defense-oriented frigate. In keeping with the spreadsheet, a procurement resolution is envisioned for one month later, in June 2026, and can be price €26 billion ($30.7 billion).
Linus Höller is Protection Information’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He experiences on the arms offers, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a grasp’s levels in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism research, and worldwide relations, and works in 4 languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.
