Sabine Siebold News

The German government is considering taking a minority stake in Thyssenkrupp's warship division Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to Kiel on Tuesday.The consideration process would take until the end of the year, Pistorius said, according to a defense ministry spokesperson.Thyssenkrupp is looking for a standalone future for TKMS, which builds submarines and frigates, and has mentioned a listing, partial sale, merger or joint venture as possibilities to reach its goal.Last week, a leading worker representative told Reuters that Berli

Major naval drills about to start in the Baltic Sea involving some 30 ships and more than 3,000 Western service members will for the first time practice how to respond to a Russian assault in the region, Germany's navy chief said on Friday."We are sending a clear message of vigilance to Russia: Not on our watch," Vice-Admiral Jan Christian Kaack told reporters in Berlin. "Credible deterrence must include the ability to attack."The two-week Northern Coasts exercise, set to start Sep 9…

Western allies on Wednesday warned against reaching premature conclusions on who was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, with Germany suggesting the attack could also have been a "false flag" operation to blame Ukraine.A New York Times report, citing intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials, said on Tuesday a pro-Ukrainian group may be behind the blasts that became a flashpoint between the West and Russia after last year's Russian invasion of Ukraine.The report…

The German navy is helping Norway to protect critical maritime infrastructure such as oil rigs, undersea cables, and pipelines, and is ready to do the same off the Danish and Swedish coasts, its head said on Thursday. Bordering Russia in the north, Norway is Europe's biggest producer of natural gas and oil and has an extremely long coast that is hard to protect. It operates an extensive network of pipelines that connect the country with Britain and Europe. NATO has pledged to…

The German government made an offer to buy the insolvent MV Werften's Rostock shipyard for its navy, a defense ministry spokesperson said on Friday, in a move to top up capacities for repairing and servicing war ships.Germany, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been scrambling to bring its military back in shape after decades of attrition following the Cold War.In a major policy shift, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged in February to sharply increase defense spending, including an initial 100 billion euro ($106 billion) fund to fill gaps in weapons and other military equipment.The d

European Union leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian oil imports that will start kicking in towards the end of the year and which exempts, for now, pipeline imports that Hungary and two other landlocked Central European states rely on.The toughest sanction yet on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed overnight after weeks of wrangling, aims to remove 90% of Russia's crude imports into the 27-nation bloc by year-end, senior officials said."The purpose is to stop Russia's aggressive war…

The U.S. is spanning a sea bridge over the Atlantic to support Ukraine with crucial equipment in its war against Russia, a senior official said on Friday, as a huge cargo ship at the Belgian port of Antwerp got ready to set sail for Germany.Carol Petsonk, the United States' Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, was shown around the loading dock of the vehicles carrier "Arc Integrity" where the military gear was tied with straps to the floor."What we see is the vessel's carrying two types of equipment: One is the personal vehicles, belongings of service members who are going to serve in U.S.

The European Union's foreign ministers disagreed on Monday on whether and how to slap sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector over its invasion of Ukraine, with Germany saying the bloc was too dependent on Russian oil to decide an embargo.The EU and allies have already imposed hefty measures against Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets.Russia's siege and bombardment of Mariupol port, which EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called "a massive war crime"…

When Russia attacked Ukraine, the nearest naval vessel of a major NATO ally was in the Mediterranean. The last such ship from a major naval member of the Western military alliance left the Black Sea – an area roughly the size of California bordering Russia, Ukraine and NATO members Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania – over a month ago.A French warship completed a tour in early January and no major NATO naval ally has patrolled its waters since, according to Turkish maritime website Turkishnavy.net, which tracks the movements of foreign warships.

Germany signaled on Tuesday that it could halt the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia if Moscow invades Ukraine, and Western nations rallied behind Kyiv over a Russian troop buildup that has stoked fears of war.Stepping up diplomacy after talks with Russia ended in stalemate last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Kyiv on Wednesday before heading to Berlin to discuss "joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine" with German, British and French officials.As fears of conflict rose…

Norway has agreed to order four submarines from Germany's Thyssenkrupp for 45 billion crowns ($5.3 billion), with Germany agreeing to order another two, the Norwegian defense ministry said on Tuesday.Norway and Germany, both NATO members, are jointly procuring identical submarines from Thyssenkrupp's shipbuilding division.The Norwegian defense ministry said Germany had agreed to order two submarines from Thyssenkrupp, pending approval from the German parliament.The signing of the contract is due this summer…

Germany is betting the U.S. administration will take a pragmatic approach to the Nord Stream 2 project to ship Russian gas to Europe and is pushing for the pipeline’s completion in defiance of U.S. opposition, officials and diplomats said.To try to block the $11 billion project, led by Russia’s Gazprom, successive U.S. administrations have imposed sanctions on some entities and warned other companies involved in the project about the sanctions risk.President Joe Biden thinks the pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany is “a bad idea for Europe…

Germany has awarded Dutch shipyard Damen a contract to construct at least four new multi-role warships worth nearly 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in an alliance with its Bremen-based partner Luerssen, the armed forces and budget lawmakers said on Tuesday.The ship tender is one of Germany's biggest arms projects, along with a contract for the MEADS missile defence system and the new Franco-German fighter jet (FCAS), underlining Berlin's efforts to increase its military capabilities.The first warship is expected to be delivered in 2027…

Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and German Naval Yards Kiel (GNYK) have teamed up in the ongoing bidding process for a contract worth several billions of euros to build a new multipurpose warship for Germany, Thyssenkrupp said.The company, responding to a Reuters query, said that GNYK is participating as general contractor in the auction and that Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems would act as subcontractor if their bid is successful.RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), a group representing German newspapers, first reported that both shipbuilders had joined forces.The tender is for Germany's new MKS 180 warship, which is one of the German military's largest armament initiatives and designed to combat targets in the air…

Norway plans to sign a deal to buy four submarines from ThyssenKrupp in 2019, Norwegian defence minister Marie Eriksen Soreide said on Tuesday during a visit with her German counterpart to a German marine base.   German media has reported the four submarines will cost 4.3 billion euros ($5.06 billion).   The purchase of the ships is part of a cooperation agreement between the two countries, under which Germany's armed forces will buy two identical submarines from Germany's ThyssenKrupp and missiles from Norway's Kongsberg. "We want to sign the deal in 2019 and get the first submarines in the mid-2020s," Eriksen Soreide said. Reporting By Sabine Siebold

Luerssen, ThyssenKrupp and German Naval Yards have agreed to bid jointly for a German navy warship contract after competition authorities struck down an earlier bid, an industry source said. The contract had originally been worth 1.5 billion euros($1.68 billion) but it is unclear how much the government will ultimately pay. The contract for five corvettes, which had been due to be awarded without tender to a consortium of ThyssenKrupp and Luerssen, was struck down by the German cartel office after German Naval Yards complained. Under the deal, which must still be approved by the cartel office, German Naval Yards would win work worth 15 percent of total revenues from the contract. The German parliament's budget committee will decide on the contract on June 21, the source said.

Germany's much-delayed new frigates, built by ThyssenKrupp and Luerssen for at least 650 million euros ($710 million) apiece, are overweight and float with a persistent list to starboard, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters. The ships, designed to need a crew of only 120, less than half their predecessors, are a crucial element in Germany's plans to beef up its military to face an increasingly uncertain European security landscape and a more assertive Russia. Designed to remain at sea for far longer than the German armed forces' existing fleet…

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Friday to press a consortium led by Luerssen Werft of Bremen for a "fair contract" for five new warships, saying the group's initial bid was too high. "My goal is to get the contract started in this legislative period, but we want a good contact, we want a fair contract and above all a realistic one," von der Leyen told reporters on Friday. Defence industry sources said last week the German government had rejected the initial bid from the consortium before it exceeded the budget target of 1.5 billion euros ($1.59 billion). The Handelsblatt newspaper reported this week that the bid came in at 2.9 billion euros, nearly twice the expected amount.

The German Defence Ministry on Thursday said it would skip an open tender for the planned purchase of five more corvettes valued at 1.5 billion euros and instead ask the three-company consortium that built the existing warships to submit a bid. "The defence ministry has decided to ask the ARGE K130 consortium to bid for procurement of five additional, nearly identical ships," a ministry spokesman said. German lawmakers have criticised the ministry's plans to skip a competition, saying it violated basic procurement principles mapped out by Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has decided to buy six MKS-180 multi-role warships instead of putting off a decision on two of those ships until 2030, her spokesman said on Monday. The ministry decided last October to delay a tender for four warships, which was valued at 4 billion euros ($4.24 billion), to ensure that quality standards were met. A decision on two extra warships had initially been planned in 2030. "The need is there. Now the minister has decided to buy all six of the required MKS-180 ships," the spokesman said, without providing a new cost estimate for the programme. The new ships, to be delivered from 2023, will be used for attacking targets on land and underwater, as well as providing aerial protection to other vessels.

NATO ships are on their way to the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece crack down on criminal networks smuggling refugees into Europe, the alliance's top commander said on Thursday. Hours after NATO defence ministers agreed to use their maritime force in the eastern Mediterranean to help combat traffickers, Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said he was working quickly to design the mission. "We are sailing the ships in the appropriate direction," Breedlove told a news conference, and the mission plan would be refined during the time they were en route. "That's about 24 hours," he said. The plan, which was first raised only on Monday by Germany and Turkey, took NATO by surprise and is aimed at helping the continent tackle its worst migration crisis since World War Two.

A tender worth around 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) for four warships for the German navy has been delayed by around six months to ensure quality standards are met, according to a copy of a defence ministry letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The new MKS 180 multi-role combat ships are expected to be delivered from 2023. They are intended to be capable of attacking targets on land and underwater and providing aerial protection to other vessels. In the letter to the German parliament's budget committee, Deputy Defence Minister Markus Gruebel said it would take longer to conclude the agreement with bidders than it took with previous procurement projects due to higher quality standards.

The European Union will go ahead with training for the Libyan coast guard this week, days after a coast guard vessel allegedly attacked a boat carrying migrants, causing four of them to drown. The German humanitarian group Sea-Watch recovered the four bodies after an attack on Friday that its members say was carried out by a vessel with the markings of the Libyan coast guard. "The aim was to start the training this week, and this week it will start," the spokesman for the EU's Operation Sophia, Antonello De Renzis Sonnino, told Reuters. The bodies of the four migrants reached Palermo, Sicily, on Monday aboard the Norwegian rescue vessel Siem Pilot, which carried 1,100 rescued migrants and 13 other bodies.