WASHINGTON — The US State Department greenlit a potential foreign military sale of up to 400 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air (AMRAAM) missiles to Germany, a deal valued at over $1.2 billion, according to a notice published by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The approval paves the way for Berlin to acquire the weapons from defense giant RTX, whose subsidiary Raytheon manufactures the AMRAAM. The approval covers the AIM-120D-3 variant of the weapon and associated equipment, which the DSCA release on Thursday said will “provid[e]increased air-to-air capability for the German F-35 program” and other NATO needs.
The notice from DSCA is a congressional notification and is not final, as quantities and dollar totals often shift during negotiations. Today’s announcement also technically tees up an opportunity for lawmakers to block the deal within a 30-day period, though such a step would be unlikely considering Germany is a key NATO ally.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” the DSCA posting says.
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The AMRAAM has been in particularly high demand amid modern threats that have highlighted air defense as a key focus of the US military and its allies. Although AMRAAM is an air-to-air missile, it can also be fired from the ground-based NASAMS air defense system that serves NATO customers and has been extensively used in Ukraine.
RTX has been ramping up production of the missile to meet the need, which company officials have forecast will remain durable in the coming years. The announcement for Germany today is the latest for a European customer, following similar recent approvals of variants of the weapon for the Netherlands (232 missiles and equipment for an estimated $570 million) and Finland (405 missiles and equipment for an estimated $1.1 billion).
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The US government, for its part, is working to boost production of the weapon due to the high domestic and international interest in the AMRAAM. A spending plan lawmakers sent the Pentagon for President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill allocates an additional $250 million for procurement of the weapon alongside $225 million to expand its production capacity. Officials aim to eventually double the missile’s annual production from 1,200 to 2,400 units.
“More AMRAAMs are coming off the production line today than ever before. We’re working closely with our supply chain to ensure our customers have the advanced munitions they need at scale,” Brian DeGennaro, vice president of Raytheon’s air dominance portfolio, said in a statement to Breaking Defense.