The German government approved the benchmarks for the federal budget on 24 March, including the defence budget and funding plan until 2025, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on its website the same day. This includes a 2022 defence budget totalling EUR49.29 billion (USD58 billion): a 5% increase from this year's EUR46.93 billion. German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said the increase is necessary to fill capability gaps resulting from decades of cuts and to counter threats from unmanned aerial vehicles and hypersonic weapons as well as from cyberspace. With this decision the federal government accepts its international obligations to NATO and the EU, the German MoD said, adding that the funding of major projects had been agreed and citing as examples German arms co-operation with France and Norway as well as the replacement of the Tornado combat aircraft. The ministry also reported that the budget committee of the Bundestag, the German parliament, is on the verge of approving funding for the development of the European Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS), paving the way for a contract signing by Germany, France, Italy, and Spain by the middle of the year.
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