Germany has finalized a $2.5 billion framework with EuroSpike, the European consortium marketing Rafael’s Spike missile line, through NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency. The contract reflects Berlin’s push to rebuild anti-armor capabilities and stabilize long-term defense production after years of underinvestment.
Haaretz reported on October 21, 2025, that Berlin has signed a roughly 2 billion euro framework with EuroSpike, the European joint venture marketing Rafael’s Spike family, via NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency. The contract bundles missile deliveries with through-life support, training and documentation, making it one of NSPA’s largest recent awards. It also comes in a year when German purchases from Israeli defense suppliers have already surged, underscoring the urgency of rebuilding anti-armor stocks after years of underinvestment.
At the heart of the package is the MELLS system, the Bundeswehr designation for Spike LR/ LR2. Spike LR2 is a fifth-generation, fiber-optic guided missile with a 5.5 km ground-launched reach and up to 10 km from helicopters. Its dual electro-optical seeker fuses an uncooled IIR channel with a high-resolution day sensor, enabling fire and forget, fire-observe-update and fire-to-coordinates modes. Operators can hand off targets, re-target in flight, and prosecute both top-attack and direct-attack profiles against armor, fortifications and light vessels. Warhead options include a tandem HEAT for defeating reactive armor and a multipurpose blast-fragmentation variant for urban targets. Round weight is about 13.4 kg, easing the dismounted carriage.
Germany fields MELLS with infantry units and has been integrating the launcher on the Puma infantry fighting vehicle as part of the S1 enhancement, restoring a credible anti-tank capability at section level. Earlier tranches financed MELLS fitment for Pumas earmarked for NATO’s VJTF and kicked off a broader upgrade program across the fleet. The new Spike order scales that effort, pairing vehicle mounts with tripod, light-vehicle and rotary-wing employment to create layered engagement options from 0 to beyond 5 km.
The fiber-optic link gives gunners continuous man-in-the-loop control for aimpoint refinement, collateral-damage checks and aborts when civilians appear in the seeker view. The seeker’s multispectral tracking and the missile’s immunity to GPS disruption are salient in a European battlespace thick with electronic warfare and obscurants. Commonality across the Spike family eases sustainment and lets Germany tap a wide user community for training, test data and urgent upgrades.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces has repeatedly flagged ammunition and equipment shortfalls, even after the creation of the 100 billion euro Zeitenwende special fund. Stockpiles consumed by training and transfers to partners need replenishment, and formations earmarked for NATO’s eastern flank require higher launcher-to-missile ratios to sustain extended operations. A multi-year NSPA vehicle lowers procurement friction and stabilizes industry output at a time when delivery tempo is a capital capability.
A MELLS-equipped grenadier platoon can overwatch armor avenues, ambush from defilade, or sanitize urban strongpoints while remaining dispersed. Fire-to-coordinates lets commanders cue missiles from UAV or forward observer grids, while in-flight retargeting allows engagement of pop-up armor or high-value targets of opportunity. On Pumas, twin-rail launchers fold into the vehicle’s digital architecture, marrying stabilized sights and hunter-killer workflows with Spike’s top-attack profiles to defeat modern MBTs protected by ERA. In combined arms teams, MELLS plugs the gap between disposable light ATs and tank-fired KE rounds, giving battle groups a resilient, reloadable anti-armor backbone.
EuroSpike’s ownership structure places 80 percent with Rheinmetall and Diehl and 20 percent with Rafael via a Dutch holding, enabling European production while insulating procurement from Berlin’s restrictions on direct exports to Israel. That arrangement, plus NSPA’s umbrella, offers a path to scale up European inventories without reopening divisive debates in national parliaments. More broadly, the order sits squarely inside Germany’s post-2022 rearmament drive and NATO’s push to harden the alliance’s northeastern frontier after Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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