Berlin — The German Defence Ministry has no plans to join a joint European effort to modernize the breakdown-prone Tiger MKIII attack helicopter and will eventually phase out the models currently in use by the military.
Investigations have shown that "participation in the Tiger MKIII programme would be highly risky in terms of costs and time," a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense told dpa on Saturday.
Spain and France are jointly backing an effort to upgrade the helicopters, which are built by Airbus Helicopters.
The ministry spokeswoman said that "according to current planning, the last German Tiger attack helicopter will be taken out of service in 2038" without further action.
In April 2022, then-defence minister Christine Lambrecht told parliament that only nine of the country's 51 Tiger helicopters were operational.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper reported on Saturday that the Bundeswehr, Germany's military, will begin slowly reducing its fleet beginning in 2031.
The newspaper reported that Germany plans to adapt lighter helicopters originally designed for civilian use instead of switching to other attack helicopters currently available on the market, including the US-built Apache and Viper helicopters.
"The Bundeswehr is planning to purchase light attack helicopters that are available on the market," the Defence Ministry spokeswoman confirmed to dpa.
The helicopters under consideration are capable of comparable combat operations as attack helicopters. The spokeswoman said that adapting readily available civilian models could provide the Bundeswehr "with a powerful and assertive light combat helicopter at short notice."
SZ reported that the Airbus H-145M helicopter is under discussion to replace the Tiger and that the Bundeswehr hoped to have procurement contracts approved by parliament this year. The civilian variant of the helicopter is used by rescue services.
The Bundeswehr, according to SZ, is considering equipping the helicopters with anti-tank weapons. A total of 15 H145M helicopters are already in service with the Bundeswehr as light multipurpose helicopters to support special forces.
When asked by dpa about concrete plans, the spokeswoman said ony that the ministry is currently working on "future-oriented solutions."
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