Germany plans to phase out Tiger combat helicopters by 2038

This was announced by the German Ministry of Defense on Saturday, Reuters reports.

It is noted that the decision was expected, as Germany actually withdrew from the multinational helicopter modernization program many years ago, while France and Spain agreed to participate in it in 2022.

It is added that Berlin has repeatedly complained about the low readiness of the Tiger for operations due to technical problems.

A spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Defense said that the Tiger helicopter fleet will be decommissioned by 2038 unless additional measures are taken, confirming the report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

She added that the ministry considered various scenarios and decided that the helicopter modernization program had too many risks in terms of cost and timeliness to participate in it.

Instead of continuing to operate the Tiger, the ministry plans to purchase H145M light military helicopters from Airbus to be able to fulfil its obligations to NATO in the future.

The Ministry plans to submit the agreement to the Parliamentary Budget Committee for approval by the end of the year.

• On May 13, it was reported that Ukrainian intelligence officers would receive 105 UAVs from Germany.