BERLIN, March 18 (Reuters) – Germany’s Defence Ministry needs to purchase 82 Airbus (AIR.PA) H-145M civilian helicopters and convert a few of them into fight helicopters to exchange its Tiger fight fleet, Enterprise Insider reported, citing navy inner paperwork.

Germany final 12 months shifted its defence coverage after Russia invaded Ukraine, committing 100 billion euros ($107 billion) to modernize the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces.

Berlin, which has been reluctant to purchase into an improve of Airbus’s Tiger assault helicopter because of operational issues, needs to purchase the 82 plane for 3.05 billion euros ($3.3 billion) and arm 24 of them with anti-tank missiles, the German information outlet stated.

The Defence Ministry was not instantly accessible for remark.

The H-145M helicopters are accredited for navy use however aren’t designed as fight plane and the Bundeswehr has considerations concerning the machine’s fight suitability and crew safety, which the ministry has ignored to date, the report added.

The Bundeswehr sees the deliberate procurement “a purely political determination that ignores operational wants,” Enterprise Insider stated, citing a letter from the German Armed Forces Technical Service for Plane and Aeronautical Gear (WTD 61) to the Ministry of Defence.

($1 = 0.9376 euros)

Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Modifying by David Holmes

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