German defence ministry: working at full speed on procurement proposals

BERLIN (Reuters) - There will be many more defence procurement proposals heading to the German parliament for approval this year, said a defence ministry spokesperson on Monday, as the war in Ukraine has put renewed focus on bringing the country's military up to speed.

"The procurement section in particular is working at full speed," said the spokesperson, who added that "a very large number" of 25-million-euro ($25.59 million) proposals will be arriving in the Bundestag lower house of parliament for approval this year.

Germany is struggling to ramp up defence procurement or even just replace arms and munitions it has supplied to Kyiv, several sources told Reuters, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged 100 billion euros to bring the military up to speed in February.

The spokesperson added that after a stray missile crashed in Poland last week, Germany had discussed offering its neighbour help with air policing as well as the Patriot missile defence system to help it defend its airspace.

($1 = 0.9768 euros)

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Rachel More)