The armament company MBDA, the manufacturer of Taurus missiles, insists on the German government speeding up decisions regarding orders for the industry. As reported by Spiegel.
"We can do this much better and faster here in Germany," said the head of the German subsidiary, Thomas Gottschild. The joint venture Airbus, BAE Systems, and Leonardo, among others, are the producers of the Taurus cruise missile and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles.
Gottschild noted that Taurus missiles will no longer be produced because the defense industry is not allowed to produce stockpiles without orders.
"It's a challenge for our industry when production stops, as in the case of Taurus. In such cases, our suppliers, who are often small and medium-sized companies, stop production," he said.
With new orders, suppliers will have to first reorient themselves and secure themselves, for example, with raw materials. Given the high demand worldwide, there are bottlenecks, especially regarding raw materials for explosives.
"The defense industry requires a basic production load," Gottschild said. "This is enough to make sense to support supply chains, maintain test equipment at a modern level, and support employee competence," he added.
As a positive example, he cited orders from several states for 1000 Patriot missiles, which MBDA is working on and which will be manufactured by its American partner Raytheon in Schrobenhausen:
"We will deliver the first Patriot missiles within three years."
